What notable Muslim elected officials serve at the state level (state legislature, statewide office)?
Executive summary
A growing cohort of Muslim Americans now serves at the state level across the United States—both as state legislators and, more recently, in statewide executive offices—reflecting a broader surge in civic participation reported by advocacy groups and media analyses [1] [2]. Notable names include Ghazala Hashmi, who in January 2026 became the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office as Virginia’s lieutenant governor after serving in the state senate, alongside a set of state legislators from Minnesota, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, California and elsewhere whose victories were flagged in multiple trackers of Muslim political representation [3] [4] [1] [5].
1. Rising to statewide office: Ghazala Hashmi’s milestone
Ghazala Hashmi’s election as Virginia’s lieutenant governor in 2025 and her January 17, 2026 swearing-in mark the first time a Muslim woman has held statewide office in U.S. history; Hashmi had earlier served in the Virginia Senate representing the 15th district and used a family Quran during her oath, symbolic details reported alongside her historic elevation [3] [4]. MPAC celebrated Hashmi’s win as a cultural milestone and Virginia advocacy and media coverage framed it as part of an unprecedented electoral year for Muslim candidates [4] [3].
2. Statewide and state-legislative pipeline: context and trends
Observers and organizations tracking Muslim elected officials documented a surge of Muslim officeholders across state and local governments—Time and CAIR analyses pointed to dozens of Muslim winners in the 2022 midterms and tracked growing pipelines from state legislatures to higher office, arguing statehouses are a launchpad to Congress and statewide posts [1] [2]. Reports across 2022–2025 show recurring themes: first-time Muslim state legislators in multiple states, a rising total of Muslim elected officials overall, and advocacy groups framing these gains as evidence of political maturation [2] [1] [6].
3. Notable state legislators named repeatedly by coverage
Several state legislators were singled out across the reporting: Minnesota’s Omar Fateh and Zaynab Mohamed were cited as historic state senators; Texas’s Salman Bhojani and Suleman Lalani were reported as the first Muslim members of the Texas Legislature; Illinois’s Nabeela Syed and Abdelnasser Rashid won state house seats; Ohio’s Munira Abdullahi became the first Muslim woman in that state’s legislature; Michigan’s Abraham Aiyash and others were highlighted as part of plural gains in statehouses [7] [1] [5] [8] [9]. These accounts indicate both individual breakthroughs and geographic spread—from Midwestern statehouses to new firsts in places like Texas and Oklahoma [7] [9].
4. Where advocacy and media coverage overlap—and why to be cautious
Advocacy groups like CAIR and media outlets such as Time, The Guardian and community outlets recorded impressive tallies—numbers ranged from dozens in the 2022 cycle to reports of 42 Muslim winners in 2025—yet these tallies come from different cut-off dates and definitions of “Muslim elected official,” producing variation across sources [2] [1] [6] [10]. The datasets are useful for spotting trends but not exhaustive rosters; reporting often highlights “firsts” and milestones because those narratives serve advocacy and community-empowerment aims, an implicit agenda worth noting when interpreting celebratory coverage [2] [4].
5. The big picture and reporting limits
Taken together, the sources show a sustained and accelerating presence of Muslim Americans in state legislatures and, as of January 2026, a breakthrough in statewide executive office with Ghazala Hashmi’s lieutenant governorship—yet none of the provided sources claims to list every Muslim state official, and national tallies vary by publisher and date [3] [2] [1] [6]. This reporting establishes clear trends and notable individuals but does not substitute for a definitive, up-to-the-minute roster of every Muslim state legislator or statewide officeholder across all 50 states [2] [1].