Virginia state Sen. Ghazala F. Hashmi joins race for lieutenant governor

RICHMOND — Virginia state Sen. Ghazala F. Hashmi will announce Thursday that she is seeking the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in her party’s June 2025 primary.

A former literature professor and community college administrator, Hashmi (Chesterfield) became the first Muslim in the Virginia Senate and the first Muslim woman in either chamber after flipping a redrawn suburban Richmond district in 2019.