David Hoffman

“Virginia leads the way to fulfill the vision of the America that we all believe in, our ideals, our very democracy itself!”

With those stirring words — echoing like a bell tower and pealing out the sound of triumph — Virginia Lt. Governor Ghazala Hashmi held a recent luncheon gathering entranced, captivated by her bold and eloquent prophecy of continued political success for Democrats in the Midterm elections coming to Virginia voters in November. 

She was speaking at the Woman’s National Democratic Club, the historic progressive organization established in Washington DC in 1922 by the generation of suffragists who fought for and won the right for women to vote in 1920 —  with final ratification of the 19th constitutional amendment. 

“Why am I so sure?” Hashmi asked.  “Because we are going to tell our excellent story in clear and effective terms —  through our great candidates who will campaign hard on the key issues, and who will pledge to represent real Virginians, and not, like MAGA Republicans, Donald J. Trump!  We will draw direct and unmistakable lines linking the individual Republicans now in office who vote in lockstep, like sheep, with Trump!”

“It’s our plan to campaign on the ground, in one on one interactions, reaching voters directly and personally, not just through paid TV ads,” Hashmi continued. “Because the more we get in front of voters, the more hearts and minds we can win!”

And she added, “we’re aimed at reaching young voters in particular, because it’s they who are now making such a big difference in so many elections!” 

Hashmi is a quiet yet compelling personality, speaking softly but carrying a big message.  She is enormously fluent in telling and selling her own individual story:  How it was —  as a Muslim herself, born in Hyderabad India in 1964, who moved at the age of four with her family to America  — that in 2017 she finally decided to run for elective office in Virginia, spurred by her visceral anger aroused by President Trump’s Muslim travel ban.

From the very beginning, she had soared as a student, eventually earning her doctorate in literature from Emory University in 1991, with a dissertation on the 20th century American modernist poet William Carlos Williams.  What followed was a three-decades-long career as a literature professor at  J. Sargent Reynolds Community College in Richmond.   Also In 1991,  she married Azhar Rafiq; they have two adult daughters.

So fast forward to 2017.  “Year 1” of the dreadful and terminally toxic post-Obama Era. The so-called “white fragility” backlash. The festering and cultural “Id of our discontent.” And what the French call “ressentiment.” The Trump Counter-Reformation. 

That’s exactly when this heretofore and self-styled “mild-mannered career community college English teacher with a foreign and funny sounding name” determined to roll the political dice and make an unlikely run as a Democrat for a Republican-held Virginia state senate seat in a rural and culturally conservative ‘Southside Virginia’ district. Leaping Lizards! as Little Orphan Annie might put it.

But Professor Hashmi could no longer remain on the sidelines in her classroom.  So she ran against an incumbent Republican in a conservative and partly rural district (although the city of Roanoke is also included).  But she was a tireless campaigner. And it was a Democratic wave election year. And she won. And four years later, she was reelected with over 60 % of the vote!

Now, in June of 2026, Lt. Governor Ghazala Hashmi is no longer a political headscratcher with a funny name! Indeed she’s on a political roll!  Turning up everywhere. At times daring to separate herself, and for example speak out in favor of public employee collective bargaining (which Hashmi supports, and Spanberger just vetoed).

Expect to hear a lot more from Hashmi. In Virginia the Governor is restricted to one consecutive term, a rule which does not apply to the part-time office of Lieutenant Governor.

Does Governor Ghazala Hashmi sound unlikely three years from now?

Did Barrack Hussein Obama sound unlikely as our next president in 2008?