Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic candidate in Virginia’s lieutenant governor’s race, is projected to win her race, making her the first Muslim woman in the country to be elected to a statewide office.
She wasn’t alone in shattering a glass ceiling on Tuesday night. Hashmi joined Democrat Abigail Spanberger in making history as she became the first female elected to Virginia’s governor’s mansion.
Hashmi, a state senator, consistently led in the polls over her opponent Republican John Reid, a radio show host. As an Indian immigrant who came to the United States as a child, Hashmi says she was motivated to run for the state Senate in 2017 when President Donald Trump implemented a ban on travelers from majority-Muslim countries.
Hashmi has been the target of Islamophobic attacks from her opponent.
“Maybe Democrats shouldn’t have chosen a pro Hamas radical leftist like Ghazala if they wanted to get everyone to believe they’re so moderate,” Reid posted recently on X (formerly Twitter).
Last month, in a long post on X, he said Hashmi should answer questions about “Sharia law influencing Virginia law” and tried to link her to Zohran Mamdani. The New York City mayoral candidate, who is also Muslim, is a democratic socialist and has been the target of conservative ire his entire campaign.
“Just wondering has anyone bothered to ask Ghazala anything about her NYC twin’s socialist agenda and which parts she embraces and which parts she doesn’t?” Reid said. “Is that not a fair question given their party affiliation, their radical ‘progressive’ alignment, and their religious connection?”
The election going in Reid’s favor would have also been historic. He would have become the first openly gay Republican elected to statewide office — but not without pushback from his own party.
When a Tumblr account featuring explicit images was allegedly linked to Reid in April, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin reportedly called Reid and urged him to drop out, fearing the scandal would hurt the party as a whole.
Reid said the account wasn’t his and refused to drop out, instead saying that Youngkin was targeting him because of his sexual orientation.
It was a tough needle for Reid to thread during his campaign. In recent years, and especially since Trump returned to the White House in January, the GOP has grown increasingly hostile to diversity efforts and the LGBTQ+ community. Almost immediately after being sworn in, Trump signed a series of executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the government and one that declared there are only two sexes.
Reid often said that his sexual orientation was not the most important part of his campaign ― he instead chose to dedicate part of his campaign to targeting transgender students at public schools.