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After nearly 30 years in the classroom, Hashmi has made a swift rise in politics and is now the first Muslim woman in the U.S. to be nominated to a statewide ticket, according to her campaign.

She for lieutenant governor by less than a percentage point in a six-way battle. In the general election, she will face Republican John Reid, a longtime conservative radio host in Richmond.

鈥淪he never wanted to command the attention of the room,鈥� said Miles McCrimmon, who taught alongside Hashmi at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College for nearly two decades. 鈥淏ut everything that would come out of her mouth in a meeting 鈥� added to the conversation.鈥�

In the Senate, colleagues describe Hashmi as an even-tempered, collaborative leader.

鈥淪he knows how to bring people together, how to collaborate with people, and do the really hard work of policymaking,鈥� said Sen. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, who served with Hashmi on the Senate Education and Health Committee, which Hashmi chairs.

鈥淎 lot of times, I think those workhorses have a harder time when it comes to switching into campaign mode. But I think she鈥檚 really risen to the occasion, obviously.鈥�

Tina Winkler, an adjunct history professor at Reynolds when Hashmi taught there, said she鈥檚 watched Hashmi鈥檚 transformation from a soft-spoken English professor to an energizing politician who commands the crowd at rallies.

Recalling a speech that Hashmi gave earlier this year at an event for the Powhatan and Goochland Democratic Committees, Winkler said: 鈥淭hat speech was fire. It was amazing. She just knocked it out of the park.鈥�

鈥淪he shows up. You don鈥檛 see other candidates show up to rallies and protests like she did,鈥� Winkler said.

Hashmi has attended more than a dozen rallies and protests over the past few months, leading crowds in chants about protecting democracy. That includes her speech June 14 at a 鈥淣o Kings鈥� gathering at the state Capitol.

Despite what supporters term her newly emerged rousing stage presence, Pekarsky said she has always found Hashmi to be steady and composed.

鈥淪he doesn鈥檛 lose her cool, no matter what is going on, how high the temperature rises,鈥� Pekarsky said.

鈥淪he鈥檚 got a wicked sense of humor, a sarcastic sense of humor, which I love. Sometimes people don鈥檛 kind of expect that from her, but she鈥檚 witty and she鈥檚 funny.鈥�

Formative years

Hashmi, 60, was born in Hyderabad, India, and arrived in the U.S. as a young child in 1969. Her family settled in Statesboro, Georgia, where her father taught American government at Georgia Southern University. Hashmi received a B.A. in English from Georgia Southern and a Ph.D. in English from Emory University, also in Georgia.

She became a U.S. citizen in 1989, and in 1991 she and her husband, Azhar Rafiq, settled in Richmond, where both found jobs in higher education.

Hashmi spent nearly 30 years as a professor at the University of Richmond and at Reynolds, where she also served as founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. She and her husband have two adult daughters who graduated from Chesterfield County Public Schools and the University of Virginia.

Hashmi has said that the travel ban President Donald Trump imposed on seven majority-Muslim countries in January 2017, shortly after he took office, prompted her to become more politically involved and to run for office 鈥� to prove that she and other members of her faith belong.

In 2019, she was first elected to the state Senate in the 10th District, unseating Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, and helping flip the chamber to Democratic control. She became the first Muslim and the first South Asian American to serve in the Senate.

After the state Supreme Court imposed new statewide legislative boundaries, she moved to the 15th Senate District, which includes eastern Chesterfield and south Richmond. She was reelected in the new district in 2023, topping Republican Hayden Fisher.

Poetic observations

When she first began serving in the state Senate, Hashmi regularly wrote and shared poetry on Twitter, now known as X, blending classic poems with observations of her own.

On Feb. 26, 2020, during her first months in office, Hashmi wrote a poem inspired by Richmond-raised Edgar Allan Poe鈥檚 鈥淭he Raven,鈥� musing on the inefficiency of the General Assembly.

Hashmi tapped, 鈥淥nce upon a midnight dreary, while we pondered, weak & weary, over many a quaint stack of bills. While we nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping. As of someone gently rapping at the senate chamber door. 鈥楾is some Delegate,鈥� we muttered, 鈥極nly this & nothing more.鈥� 鈥�

McCrimmon, Hashmi鈥檚 fellow English professor, said he sees Hashmi鈥檚 deep knowledge of American literature in her campaigning.

鈥淪he has a deeper understanding of American history than, I dare say, 99% of all people in politics, I can assure you, and she really understands the living nature of that history,鈥� McCrimmon said. 鈥淚 think a lot of what she鈥檚 trying to do is actually enact the American promise that is such a foundation of what we try to do when we teach, especially early American literature.鈥�

Much of early American literature is rooted in American history, particularly the works of abolitionists like Frederick Douglass.

Those authors 鈥渨ere trying to get 19th-century America to live up to its ideals, trying to close the gap between the idealistic goals and aspirations of America and what was actually going on, especially in Antebellum America, before the Civil War, and trying to bridge that gap between ideal and idealism and reality,鈥� McCrimmon said.

鈥淪he鈥檚 living that right now. She鈥檚 looking at what we need to do as a country to try to live up to our ideals, and I think part of what motivates her is to see how much those ideals are in peril right now鈥� I think that鈥檚 part of who she is. She wants us to live up to our best selves as a country.鈥�

Hashmi鈥檚 political transformation, he said, began after she returned from the Women鈥檚 March in Washington, D.C., the day after Trump鈥檚 first inauguration as president.

鈥淪he got back on Jan. 22, 2017, and ... I鈥檝e never seen anybody just turn up, that I鈥檝e known for 20 years, almost as a different person,鈥� he said.

Her entry into politics, he said, was not a break from her academic background but an extension of it.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a tremendous second act for her to do something this鈥� audacious,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd yet it makes total sense, and it鈥檚 100% authentic.鈥�