Indian American Virginia State Senator appeals for support in race for Lt. Governor of Virginia

Born in Hyderabad, India, Hashmi came with her mother and big brother to the US when she was just 4 years old. The family lived in Georgia where her father was finishing his PhD and teaching at a university.

“I grew up at a time when public schools were only just being desegregated, so I saw firsthand how communities could be built and dialogue promoted through intentional efforts to bridge cultural, racial, and socioeconomic divisions,” Hashmi says in her email blast. She was active in civil rights issues.

She earned a BA from Georgia Southern University and a PhD from Emory University. After getting married to Azhar Hashmi, the couple moved to Virginia where Hashmi taught at colleges for 30 years.

“I loved teaching. I worked hard to create community and dialogue within my classrooms, and I was proud to be teaching the leaders of tomorrow,” she said.

To have an even wider impact on her own community and those around her Hashmi says, she decided to run for public office.

In 2019, she beat a popular incumbent Republican, flipped the seat that gave Democrats control of the State Senate, and became Virginia’s first Muslim State Senator.

“Now, with a Republican governor (Youngkin), I have been proud to stand with my colleagues in the Virginia Senate to hold back the GOP’s attacks on our reproductive freedom, voting rights, and public schools,” Hashmi says, promising to bring “compassionate progressivism” to the state which currently has a Republican Governor.

The Washington Post, reporting back in May, noted that the “Virginia’s lieutenant governorship is a part-time, largely ceremonial job” but has power through its ability to break tie votes. A Lt. Governor presides over the state Senate, and assumes office as a Governor if the incumbent dies or leaves office. The Governorship in Virginia is restricted to a single term in office.  The pay of a Lt. Governor in Virginia is a meager $36,321 a year The Post reported.

Hashmi and her husband have two adult daughters who both graduated from Chesterfield County Public Schools and the University of Virginia.