The 2025 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 2025, to elect the lieutenant governor of Virginia. Democratic state senator Ghazala Hashmi defeated Republican radio host John Reid. Hashmi succeeded Republican one-term incumbent Winsome Earle-Sears, who ran for governor.
John Reid won the Republican nomination on April 21, and was the first openly gay man nominated for statewide office in Virginia. Hashmi won the Democratic nomination on June 17, through a six-way primary. She was nominated as the first Indian American and Muslim for statewide office in Virginia.
Hashmi defeated Reid by a 11.56-point margin, which is the largest Democratic lieutenant gubernatorial margin since 1965. Hashmi focused on opposition to the Trump administration, while Reid made education and economic issues the main themes of his campaign. Hashmi's win was part of the Democratic sweep in the three statewide executive offices in the concurrent elections.
Hashmi was sworn in as the 43rd lieutenant governor of Virginia on January 17, 2026. She is the first Indian American elected to statewide office in Virginia and the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in the country.
Republican primary
In September 2024, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears announced her candidacy for governor of Virginia. In January 2025, Fairfax County supervisor Pat Herrity and radio host John Reid announced their candidacies for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.
On April 21, after the filing deadline, Herrity announced his withdrawal from the race due to health reasons. This made Reid the Republican nominee by default. Four days later, The Richmonder reported that Governor Glenn Youngkin, also a Republican, had asked Reid to withdraw from the race, citing sexually explicit images and posts on a page on the microblogging platform Tumblr which had a username that matched the name Reid uses on other social media accounts. Reid denied making the posts and pledged to remain in the race, arguing the effort to remove him from the ticket was due to his sexual orientation. Reid is Virginia's first openly gay candidate from either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party for statewide office.
Following backlash from within the Republican Party, Youngkin stated he would "support the nominees and their ticket". Youngkin staffer Matt Moran, whom Reid's campaign accused of being behind the effort to remove him from the ticket, resigned as a result of the controversy.
John Curran, a business consultant from James City County, did not qualify for the ballot. Following this, Curran filed as a write-in candidate for the general election and said, "I decided to give the voters an option. It's a hard option for me because people actually have to know how to spell your name and write it in. If Virginia wants me, they'll do it."
Candidates
Nominee
- John Reid, WRVA radio host, former communications director for then-U.S. Senator George Allen, and son of former state delegate Jack Reid
Withdrawn
- Pat Herrity, Fairfax County supervisor (2008–present)
Disqualified
- John Curran, business consultant
Declined
- Rich Anderson, former chair of the Virginia Republican Party (2020–2025) and former state delegate from the 51st district (2010–2018) (nominated to become assistant secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs)
- Winsome Earle-Sears, incumbent lieutenant governor (2022–2026) (ran for governor)
Democratic primary
Six candidates appeared on the ballot for the Democratic primary. Prior to the election, the race was viewed to have three favored frontrunners: state senators Ghazala Hashmi and Aaron Rouse, along with former Richmond mayor Levar Stoney. In a very tight race among the three, Hashmi narrowly secured the nomination over Stoney and Rouse.
Candidates
Nominee
- Ghazala Hashmi, state senator from the 15th district (2020–2026)
Eliminated in primary
- Alex Bastani, attorney and former economist in U.S. Department of Labor
- Babur Lateef, chair of the Prince William County School Board (2018–present)
- Aaron Rouse, state senator from the 22nd district (2023–present)
- Victor Salgado, federal prosecutor and law professor
- Levar Stoney, former mayor of Richmond (2017–2025) and former Virginia secretary of the Commonwealth (2014–2016) (previously ran for governor)
Withdrawn
- Carl Eggleston, former Farmville councilor (1984–1988) (endorsed Stoney)
Declined
- Sam Rasoul, state delegate from the 38th district (2014–present) and candidate for lieutenant governor in 2021
Independents
Candidates
Declined
- Denver Riggleman, former Republican U.S. representative for VA-05 (2019–2021) (formed exploratory committee but opted not to run)
General election
Campaign
Ghazala Hashmi, the Democratic nominee, had declined to participate in a debate with John Reid, the Republican nominee. No debates had been held between the candidates for lieutenant governor in the previous election. In response, Reid held a 40-minute debate without the involvement of Hashmi. Hashmi was represented by a computer monitor depicting her face, with responses delivered via artificial intelligence speech synthesis. The Reid campaign stated the responses delivered through speech synthesis were compiled and written by the Reid campaign, through information from interviews and Hashmi's website. The Virginian-Pilot noted that the on-screen attribution for the statements delivered occasionally listed far-right websites such as The Gateway Pundit. Noah Jennings, Reid's campaign manager, stated that they had aimed for a debate that was "fair and accurate to [Hashmi], not campy and overdramatic", while Ava Pitruzzello, a spokesperson for the Hashmi campaign, called it a "failed use of deepfakes" that was "desperate" and "straight out of Donald Trump’s playbook".
Post-primary endorsements
John Reid (R)
Ghazala Hashmi (D)
Polling
Aggregate polls
Results
By county and independent city
Caroline, Nelson, Prince Edward, Spotsylvania, and York counties were won by Reid, despite voting Abigail Spanberger for governor.
Counties and independent cities that flipped from Republican to Democratic
- Chesapeake (independent city)
- Chesterfield (largest municipality: Chester)
- James City (largest municipality: Williamsburg)
- Montgomery (largest municipality: Blacksburg)
- Northampton (largest municipality: Exmore)
- Radford (independent city)
- Stafford (largest municipality: Aquia Harbour)
- Surry (largest municipality: Claremont)
- Virginia Beach (independent city)
- Waynesboro (independent city)
By congressional district
Hashmi won seven of 11 congressional districts, including one held by a Republican.