The first Muslim woman in the country to win statewide office has Georgia roots

In 1969, when Ghazala Hashmi moved to Statesboro, there was “nothing there,” said her mother, Tanveer: “There were very few grocery stores, and they had been closed at six o’clock. One or two stores for clothes and some other stuff.” At the time, Ghazala was four years old. Tanveer had brought her and her older brother from their native India to join Ghazala’s father, Zia Hashmi, who had moved to the U.S. a few years before and accepted a position as a political science professor at Georgia Southern University.

Now it’s Ghazala who’s got a new job: On Nov. 4, she was elected Virginia’s lieutenant governor, having run on promises to fight Trump’s agenda and increase funding for education. Ghazala made history as the first Muslim woman in the country to win a statewide election, though, as a member of the Senate of Virginia since 2020, she’s already a familiar face in state politics.

Her ascendance to the number two office comes amid a rise in prominence of Muslim candidates across the U.S. — not just in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani was overwhelmingly elected mayor, but also in states like Georgia, where in recent years four Muslim lawmakers have joined the state legislature. One of them, Ruwa Romman, is now running for governor.