FAIRFAX — Ghazala Hashmi‘s nearly 30 years as an English professor trained her to look closely at words. On the campaign trail for lieutenant governor, the Democrat zeroes in on the Constitution’s very first one: “we.”
“We the people of Virginia are stronger together. We the people of Virginia are more resilient together, and we the people of Virginia are going to do this in November…” Hashmi shouted to a group of about 100 supporters who gathered outside the Fairfax County government center Sept. 19, the first day of early voting.
When the crowd finished cheering, Hashmi returned to the measured, steady tone that’s marked her six years in the state Senate as she shook hands and chatted with voters. It was the same calm clarity that marked her conversations throughout the day — whether on the stump, in a sit-down interview or in the travel between campaign stops.
Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, is running against Republican nominee John Reid, a conservative former radio host who has long leaned into fiery cultural rhetoric.
A Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter accompanied Hashmi to several campaign stops for this story. Earlier this month, The Times-Dispatch accompanied Reid to campaign events for a story about his message on the campaign trail.
Hashmi spent nearly 30 years as a professor at the University of Richmond and at J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College, where she also served as founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.
She said her campaign is “an unrelenting effort to continue to talk to voters everywhere” and “communicate what’s at stake.” Hashmi criticized Reid recently for past radio comments in which he compared abortion to slavery.
“I’m hoping that we are able to ensure that every voter recognizes how their life, their family’s situation, is at stake, and why we need strong and capable leadership coming in this January so that we can bring stability despite the chaos that we see happening in Washington,” Hashmi said in an interview between campaign stops.
On the campaign trail, Hashmi’s favorite thing to talk about is policy. Hashmi, who leads the Senate Education and Health Committee, speaks comfortably about funding formulas for public schools, health insurance policies and the structural hurdles facing affordable housing.
Hashmi said one of the top concerns she hears from voters, no matter where she is across the state, is about housing affordability.
“It doesn’t matter which part of Virginia, the issue around skyrocketing mortgages and rental prices is a serious concern, and that is something I’ve been working on for six years through the Virginia Housing Commission,” Hashmi said in an interview in the car between campaign stops.
Hashmi introduced legislation in the state Senate this year that would have granted localities the authority to encourage affordable housing development on properties that religious entities own. Hashmi’s bill did not advance but earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, introduced similar legislation at the federal level.
Hashmi said that as lieutenant governor, she would work to address higher-density housing needs and break down the red tape that often causes delays in housing development projects.
Reproductive health care
One of Hashmi’s top priorities is protecting access to reproductive health care. Her passion for it is grounded in life experience.
During Hashmi’s second pregnancy, she carried twins who died in utero, so her doctor performed a procedure to prevent a sepsis infection. In her next pregnancy, she said she required a procedure to save her life after experiencing a miscarriage and hemorrhaging.
Hashmi has spoken about her miscarriages publicly only a few times, noting that she’s thankful that she had those pregnancies at a time and in a state where her physician was able to do the procedures that were needed to save her life.
She and her husband have two adult daughters who graduated from Chesterfield County Public Schools and the University of Virginia.
Virginia is amid a multiyear process in which proponents are seeking to add an amendment to the state constitution that would protect the right to abortion and contraception. If the House and Senate pass the proposed amendment again in the General Assembly session that begins in January, the measure would go to voters in a statewide referendum in the fall of 2026.
The state Senate is split with 19 Republicans and 21 Democrats, so if one Democrat votes the opposite of their colleagues, the lieutenant governor casts the tie-breaking vote on most issues.
Reid says he is “pro-life” and that Virginia’s law that allows late-term abortions in certain circumstances goes too far. He says he would vote against the constitutional amendment.
Background in teaching
Hashmi, who immigrated from India as a young girl, built her career in Virginia as an educator. She says that experience of commanding a classroom readied her for a second career as a politician.
“I’ve been in front of classrooms for 30 years,” she said. “You have to make sure they’re energized by what you’re saying and keep their attention for 45 minutes. So when I step on a stage, it feels natural.”
Throughout her time as a legislator, Hashmi’s background as an academic has become part of her brand. When she first ran for the state Senate in 2019, Hashmi naturally reached into her background as a professor of poetry and quoted Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“People responded to that. They said it’s a unique voice, but it’s a message of hope and resilience about who and what this country is all about, and it connects to people,” Hashmi said.
“Having that background in … the literary traditions of this nation and being able to connect those traditions to what we’re going through right now really is powerful because people want to see themselves as a part of a longer history … what our American identity is.”
After long campaign days, Hashmi unwinds the same way she did as a professor: by reading. This summer, she worked through “James,” Percival Everett’s retelling of “Huckleberry Finn,” before diving into Barbara Kingsolver’s “Unsheltered.”
“It’s a really interesting analysis of public anxiety about science and credibility,” she said of Kingsolver’s novel. “Fiction helps me step away, but it still speaks to the issues we’re facing.”
Hashmi said viewing this moment in the broader context of American history provides hope, and she wants to communicate that in her campaign.
“One thing I have seen is that there is just a real anxiety in Virginia, and I think across the country, real anxiety about the direction that we are going in, and concern about national-level politics, especially as they’re impacting us here in Virginia with the loss of federal jobs and cuts to essential services and Medicaid, and people really are looking for hope,” Hashmi said.
“One of my messages is that we don’t have any white knights that are going to be coming. It’s really up to each of us, and each of us has a responsibility. We don’t all have to run for office, but we do have to do something.”