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Ghazala Hashmi
American politician (born 1964) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ghazala Firdous Hashmi (born July 5, 1964) is an American politician serving as a Virginia state senator from the 15th district since 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously worked as an educator and academic administrator before running for office.
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Born in India and raised in Georgia, Hashmi graduated from Georgia Southern University with a bachelor's degree in English. In 2019, she was elected to the Virginia General Assembly and re-elected in 2023. Hashmi is the Democratic nominee in the 2025 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election. If elected, she would be the first Asian-American and Muslim to win statewide office in Virginia.[1]
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Early life and career
Hashmi was born in Hyderabad, India, in 1964 to Tanveer and Zia Hashmi into a Hyderabadi family. She lived at her maternal grandparents' home in Malakpet during her childhood. Her maternal grandfather served in the finance department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Her family moved to the United States in 1969 when she was four years old and she grew up in Statesboro, Georgia.[2][3] Her father and uncle worked in Georgia Southern University’s political science department, where she attended the Marvin Pittman Laboratory School.[4]
Hashmi completed a Bachelor of Arts in English at Georgia Southern University and earned a Ph.D. in English from Emory University.[5] Her 1992 dissertation was titled William Carlos Williams and the American ground of "In the American Grain" and "Paterson."[6] Peter Dowell was her doctoral advisor.[6]
Hashmi was an educator and academic administrator for 25 years.[2] She was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Richmond and a professor at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, where she served as the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.[2]
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Political career
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Virginia State Senate
In the 2019 Virginia Senate election, Hashmi defeated incumbent Republican Glen Sturtevant in the 10th district, flipping the chamber to Democratic control. She is the first woman to represent the district and the first Muslim elected to the Senate of Virginia.[7] She was officially sworn into office on January 8, 2020.[8][9][10]
In 2023, she was re-elected with over 60% of the vote against Republican candidate Hayden Fisher in the redistricted 15th district. A legal challenge was filed shortly after claiming Hashmi did not meet the residency requirements to hold office, having established her residency at a rental apartment within the 15th district while her family home nearby was in a neighboring district.[11] A judge dismissed the lawsuit in early December.[12]
2025 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election
In May 2024, Hashmi announced her campaign for lieutenant governor; if elected she would be the first Muslim and Asian American elected to a statewide office in Virginia. She narrowly advanced from the Democratic primary in June, 2025, ahead of former Richmond mayor Levar Stoney and fellow state senator Aaron Rouse respectively, and will face Republican nominee John Reid in November.[1] With this nomination Hashmi is both the first Muslim and the first Indian-American to be nominated for a statewide office in Virginia.[13]
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Policy positions
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Healthcare
In 2024 following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Hashmi and delegate Marcia Price introduced the Right to Contraception Act which would establish a legal right to access and use contraception in Virginia, including: oral contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and condoms.[14][15] It would also protect medical providers and pharmacists from legal action for providing contraception to patients.[16] It passed the Virginia General Assembly, but was vetoed by governor Glenn Youngkin in May.[17] The bill was reintroduced in 2025 but was vetoed by Youngkin again.[18][19] The same year, the Senate passed her bill which would block the extradition of health care providers who faced criminal charges in other states for performing medical services that are legal in Virginia— such as abortion and gender-affirming care.[20]
In 2025, she introduced a budget amendment alongside Creigh Deeds that would have set out a plan to find alternative funding if Virginia's federal Medicaid funding was cut.[21] As chair of the Senate's Education and Health Committee, she supported Virginia's health insurance marketplace and federal premium tax credits.[22]
Economy
In April 2025, Hashmi stated her support for repealing Virginia's right-to-work laws.[23] In a July opinion piece for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, she criticized Donald Trump's federal worker layoffs as the primary reason for Virginia's drop from first to fourth place in CNBC’s 2025 "America's Top States For Business" ranking.[24]
Education
In 2025, Hashmi sponsored a bill to end a cap on state-funding for support positions in public schools which would cost $1.1 billion.[25]
Personal life
Hashmi moved to Richmond in 1991 with her husband, Azhar Rafiq.[26] They have two daughters.[2]
Electoral history
2019 election
2023 election
2025 Democratic Lieutenant Governor Primary
Hashmi
- 20–30%
- 30–40%
- 40–50%
- 50–60%
Stoney
- 20–30%
- 30–40%
- 40–50%
- 50–60%
- 60–70%
- 70–80%
Rouse
- 20–30%
- 30–40%
- 40–50%
- 50–60%
- 60–70%
Lateef
- 30–40%
Bastani
- 30–40%
Tie
- 20–30%
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Selected works
Books
- Bensen, Beth; Woetzel, Denise; Wu, Hong; Hashmi, Ghazala (September 29, 2016). "Chapter 19. Impacting Information Literacy through Alignment, Resources, and Assessment". In D'Angelo, Barbara J; Jamieson, Sandra; Maid, Barry; Walker, Janet R. (eds.). Information Literacy: Research and Collaboration across Disciplines (PDF). University Press of Colorado. pp. 397–410. doi:10.37514/PER-B.2016.0834. ISBN 978-1-64215-083-4.
- Hashmi, Ghazala (March 4, 2016). "Chapter 10. Shifting the City's Center within Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers". In Wilhite, Keith (ed.). The City Since 9/11: Literature, Film, Television. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 177–192. ISBN 1611477190.
Articles
- Hashmi, Ghazala (2022). "Safe at Home: Addressing Virginia's Housing Policy Concerns in a Pandemic". Richmond Public Interest Law Review. 25 (1): 25–46. Retrieved June 17, 2025.
- Hashmi, Ghazala Firdous (1991). William Carlos Williams and the American ground of "In the American Grain" and "Paterson" (PhD thesis). Emory University. Retrieved June 17, 2025.
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References
External links
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