THREE Indian American politicians — Ghazala Hashmi, Aftab Pureval and Zohran Mamdani — have emerged as the big winners of the US local elections, marking a significant moment for South Asian representation and diversity in American politics.
Ghazala Hashmi, 61, has scripted history in Virginia by becoming the first Muslim and South Asian American to be elected as the state’s lieutenant governor. Born in Hyderabad, she moved to the US at the age of four, joining her father who was pursuing a PhD in Georgia.
She later became a professor of English and the founding director of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Reynolds Community College in Richmond.
An educator at heart, Hashmi earned a BA with honours from Georgia Southern University and a PhD in American literature from Emory University in Atlanta.
Her political career began with a major upset in 2019 when she defeated a long-time Republican senator, helping Democrats take control of the Virginia Senate for the first time in years.
In her new role, Hashmi has pledged to focus on affordable healthcare, reproductive rights, women’s equality, environmental justice, and stronger public education. She has described her victory as proof that “Virginia’s diversity is its greatest strength”.
In Cincinnati, Aftab Karma Singh Pureval renewed his own record-making journey by winning re-election as mayor. The 42-year-old Democrat, who first made history in 2021 as the city’s first Asian American mayor, retained his post after defeating Republican candidate Cory Bowman, the half-brother of vice president JD Vance.
FILE PHOTO: Aftab Pureval. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
Pureval was born in Ohio to an interfaith family — his father a Punjabi Sikh engineer, and his mother a Tibetan refugee who fled China as a child before settling in India.
The family later moved to the US in pursuit of better opportunities. He studied political science at the Ohio State University and earned a law degree from the University of Cincinnati, where he worked in a domestic violence clinic supporting abuse survivors.
Before becoming mayor, Pureval served as a lawyer and later worked at the US Department of Justice and consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble. During his term in office, he has focused on affordable housing, workers’ rights, climate goals and improving access to childcare and transport for working-class families.
Both Hashmi and Pureval are members of the Democratic Party, and their victories contributed to a wave of success for Indian American candidates on Tuesday’s election night.
Their wins came just hours after Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old assemblyman from Queens, was elected New York City’s first Indian American mayor — also the city’s first Muslim mayor.
The Uganda-born Democrat, whose mother is filmmaker Mira Nair and father scholar Mahmood Mamdani, campaigned on a strong social welfare agenda, winning widespread youth and minority support.
“From New York to Virginia to Cincinnati, we are seeing communities come together to elect new voices focused on inclusion and opportunity,” said Chintan Patel, executive director of the Indian American Impact Fund.
(with inputs from agencies)
