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)

Endorsements

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

Endorsements

Polling Poll source Date(s)administered Samplesize Marginof error Ghazala Hashmi Babur Lateef Aaron Rouse Levar Stoney Other UndecidedGarin-Hart-Yang (D)February 25 – March 1, 2025600 (LV)± 4%8%2%10%16%—63%GBAO (D)March 24–27, 2025600 (LV)± 4%13%2%15%15%3%46%

Debates + 2025 Virginia's lieutenant gubernatorial Democratic primary debate Date Host Moderator Link Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic Democratic DemocraticKey: Participant  Absent  Not invited  Invited Withdrawn Bastani Hashmi Lateef Rouse Salgado Stoney1 May 22, 2025 WJLA-TV Kellye Lynn

Results

Independents Candidates Declined Denver Riggleman, former Republican U.S. representative for (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". Predictions SourceRankingAs of State Navigate August 15, 2025

Post-primary endorsements

Polling Aggregate polls Source of pollaggregationDatesadministeredDatesupdated JohnReid (R) GhazalaHashmi (D) Other/UndecidedMarginDecision Desk HQthrough November 3, 2025November 4, 202544.3%48.9%6.8%Hashmi +4.6%

Poll source Date(s)administered Samplesize Marginof error JohnReid (R) GhazalaHashmi (D) Other UndecidedQuantus Insights (R)November 3, 20251,069 (LV)± 2.7%44%52%1%3%The Trafalgar Group (R)November 1–2, 20251,057 (LV)± 2.9%46%48%–6%Echelon InsightsOctober 28–31, 2025606 (LV)± 4.7%46%49%–5%AtlasIntelOctober 25–30, 20251,325 (LV)± 3.0%46%52%1%1%SoCal Strategies (R)October 28–29, 2025800 (LV)–45%47%–8%State NavigateOctober 26–28, 2025614 (LV)± 4.0%41%53%–6%Roanoke CollegeOctober 22–27, 20251,041 (LV)± 4.1%40%42%4%14%A2 InsightsOctober 24–26, 2025776 (LV)–45%53%–2%Christopher Newport UniversityOctober 21–23, 2025803 (LV)± 4.1%45%47%1%7%Suffolk UniversityOctober 19–21, 2025500 (LV)± 4.4%45%45%2%8%State NavigateOctober 17–20, 2025694 (LV)± 4.0%42%53%–5%The Washington Post/Schar SchoolOctober 16–20, 2025927 (LV)± 3.5%44%51%3%2%927 (RV)42%48%8%2%Quantus Insights (R)October 19–20, 20251,302 (RV)± 2.8%45%49%1%5%Kaplan Strategies (R)October 16–18, 2025556 (LV)± 4.2%41%48%–11%co/efficient (R)October 15–17, 2025937 (LV)± 3.2%42%47%–11%Clarity Campaign Labs (D)October 14–17, 2025958 (RV)± 3.2%44%48%–8%The Trafalgar Group/InsiderAdvantage (R)October 13–15, 20251,039 (LV)± 2.9%46%46%–8%Virginia Commonwealth UniversityOctober 6–14, 2025842 (A)± 4.0%43%44%–13%The Trafalgar Group (R)October 8–10, 20251,034 (LV)± 2.9%46%47%–7%Christopher Newport UniversitySeptember 29 – October 1, 2025805 (RV)± 3.9%39%48%–12%The Trafalgar Group (R)September 29 – October 1, 20251,034 (LV)± 2.9%44%48%–8%The Washington Post/Schar SchoolSeptember 25–29, 20251,002 (LV)± 3.4%45%49%2%3%1,002 (RV)42%47%6%4%A2 InsightsSeptember 16–28, 2025771 (LV)–44%49%1%6%Christopher Newport UniversitySeptember 8–14, 2025808 (RV)± 3.9%37%48%–15%Pulse Decision Science (R)September 3–5, 2025512 (LV)± 4.4%45%42%–13%Virginia Commonwealth UniversityAugust 18–28, 2025804 (A)± 4.1%41%45%–14%SoCal Strategies (R)August 31 – September 1, 2025700 (LV)–41%46%–14%co/efficient (R)August 23–26, 20251,025 (LV)± 3.1%43%43%–14%Roanoke CollegeAugust 11–15, 2025702 (LV)± 4.3%35%38%–27%American Directions Research Group/AARPJune 25 – July 8, 20251,001 (LV)± 3.1%32%47%9%12%Virginia Commonwealth UniversityJune 19 – July 3, 2025764 (RV)± 4.2%36%45%4%15%

John Reid vs. Generic Democrat Poll source Date(s)administered Samplesize Marginof error JohnReid (R) GenericDemocrat Other Undecidedco/efficient (R)June 8–10, 20251,127 (LV)± 3.1%41%39%2%18%

Results

By county and independent city Caroline, Nelson, Prince Edward, Spotsylvania, and York counties were won by Reid, despite voting Abigail Spanberger for governor.