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John Reid
His Democratic opponent, Ghazala Hashmi, made history as the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in the U.S.
Gay Republican John Reid has lost his race for Virginia lieutenant governor after a campaign marred by scandal.
With 86 percent of the vote in, Democrat Ghazala Hashmi led Reid by 55 percent to 45 percent, and the Associated Press had called the race for her. Hashmi is the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in the U.S.
In Virginia, nominees for governor and lieutenant governor run separately. The Republican nominee for governor was the current lieutenant governor, Winsome Earle-Sears, who is intensely anti-LGBTQ+. She lost decisively to Democrat Abigail Spanberger.
Related: LGBTQ+ ally Abigail Spanberger trounces anti-trans Republican to win Virginia governor’s race
On the campaign trail, Reid, a former radio host, mentioned his differences with Earle-Sears, such as the fact that she opposes marriage equality. But what got more attention was his alleged link to a pornography blog replete with Nazi imagery.
“An American Journal News investigation linked Reid to a Tumblr account, ‘JRDeux,’ that amplified content by another user who posted swastikas, white supremacist slogans, and sexual violence,” The Advocate reported in October. “Among the accounts engaged were profiles trafficking in racial slurs, bondage fantasies, and overt Nazi fetishism, the outlet reports. The blog, now deleted, was preserved in archived form.” Reid denied any ties to the account, although he had used the same handle on other social media, and said the report was “a coordinated smear.”
He would have been the first out gay Republican elected to statewide office in the nation.
Hashimi was elected to the Virginia Senate in 2019, making her the first Indian American and first Muslim woman in that body. At the time, she said she was motivated to run because of Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries.
Her resolve to oppose Trump has only intensified since. “It’s become an even sharper focus for me that I be able to stand up to the bigotry and the kind of division that Trump initiated in 2016 and that he continues to promote now in his second term,” Hashmi told The 19th Monday.
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