Hyderabad — Ghazala Hashmi, born in Hyderabad and long active in Virginia public life, has made history by winning the race for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, becoming the first Muslim, the first South Asian American, and the first Indian-origin woman to hold the office.
Hashmi, a 61-year-old Democrat, defeated Republican candidate John Reid in Tuesday’s election. Her victory comes six years after she first made headlines by winning a seat in the Virginia State Senate. She will take over from Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican who was the first woman to serve in the role.
Born in 1964 to Tanveer and Zia Hashmi, she spent parts of her early childhood at her maternal grandparents’ home in the Malakpet neighborhood of Hyderabad. Her grandfather worked in the Finance Department of the Andhra Pradesh government. When she was four, she and her family moved to the United States, joining her father, who was completing a PhD in international relations in Georgia.
Growing up in a small college town during school desegregation, Hashmi experienced firsthand the challenges and importance of building inclusive communities. She attended the Marvin Pittman Laboratory School at Georgia Southern University, where both her father and uncle taught political science. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Georgia Southern University and later completed a PhD in American literature at Emory University.
Hashmi and her husband, Azhar, settled in the Richmond area in 1991. She spent nearly three decades as a college professor, including time at the University of Richmond and Reynolds Community College, where she founded and led the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. The couple has two adult daughters, both graduates of Chesterfield County Public Schools and the University of Virginia.
Her entry into politics was influenced in part by the Trump administration’s travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority nations. Motivated to advocate for inclusion and civil rights, she ran for office and, in 2019, won her state senate seat by defeating incumbent Republican Glen Sturtevant. She became the first Muslim and first Indian-American woman elected to the Virginia State Senate.
Hashmi has focused her legislative work on public education, voting rights, reproductive freedom, gun violence prevention, healthcare access, environmental concerns, and housing affordability. In 2024, she was appointed chair of the Senate Education and Health Committee, a key leadership position overseeing issues central to Democratic priorities.
Her victory has been celebrated in India as well. K. T. Rama Rao, working president of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and former Telangana minister, congratulated her on social media, noting the significance of her journey from Malakpet to statewide office in the United States. He wrote, “There is nothing more beautiful when democracies celebrate diversity of the world.” (Source: IANS)
