Virginia Elects Historic Democratic Lieutenant Governor

Virginia state Senator Ghazala Hashmi was elected lieutenant governor Tuesday, becoming the first Muslim woman to hold statewide office in the United States.

Hashmi, a Democrat, was projected to defeat former right-wing talk show host John Reid, according to NBC News and Decision Desk HQ.

Hashmi has served as a state senator since 2019, when she became the first Indian American and first Muslim woman ever elected to the state legislature. The 61-year-old pledged Monday to fight against the “chaos of Washington and Donald Trump,” a promise that comes amid an ongoing government shutdown that has significantly shaken Virginia’s economy.

Virginians also elected their first female governor Tuesday, Abigail Spanberger. The Democratic candidate for attorney general, Jay Jones, is also projected to win, meaning Virginia will have a strong left-leaning team to stand against Trump.

Democrats made history in Georgia on Tuesday after flipping both statewide races for public service commissioner, the party’s first non-federal election victory in the state since 2006.

The state’s Public Service Commission deals with utilities, and it “has exclusive power to decide what are fair and reasonable rates for services under its jurisdiction.” Alicia Johnson defeated incumbent Tim Echols, winning 58 percent to his 41. And Peter Hubbard defeated Fitz Johnson 61 percent to 39 percent.

This victory, along with Abigail Spanberger’s gubernatorial win in Virginia, is a positive indicator for a future blue wave in the upcoming midterm elections.

Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval handily defeated Vice President JD Vance’s half-brother Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Pureval, a Democrat, trounced Cory Bowman, securing an early and humiliating lead over the Republican challenger. The final vote tally found that Purevan won 78 percent of the vote, with 51,698 votes, while Bowman seized a meager 14,383 votes, totalling just 22 percent, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

This race was called early in the night after an initial vote tally found that Pureval had won 12,694 votes, compared to Bowman’s 2,835. Pureval was first elected to office in 2021.

Vance previously endorsed his half-brother’s campaign ahead of the mayoral primary in May, with just hours left before the polls closed. “He’s a good guy with a heart for serving his community. Get out there and vote for him!” Vance wrote on X.

The vice president made no effort to plug his sibling’s campaign this time around, but posted instead in support of New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli.

This story has been updated.

Former Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger defeated Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears Tuesday by a margin of nine percentage points to become the next governor of Virginia. Spanberger will be the first ever female governor of the Commonwealth.

Spanberger ran a more centrist campaign centered around protecting reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, affordability, and education, while Earle-Sears’s campaign was marked by an unhinged, hard-right conservatism that doubled down on many of the culture-war issues that former Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin and President Donald Trump have pushed.

Trump had also pushed hard against voting for Spanberger in the days leading up to the election. He regularly took to Truth Social to warn without evidence that voting for her would result in things such as “transgender for everybody,” increased crime rates, and increased energy costs.

Exit polls showed Spanberger winning 45 percent of men and 61 percent of women in Virginia. Along ethnic lines, she won 45 percent of white people, 64 percent of Latinos, and a whopping 90 percent of Virginia’s Black voters.

Spanberger’s historic victory in Virginia may very well serve as a bellwether for some kind of blue wave in the upcoming midterm elections.

“My fellow Virginians, tonight we sent a message,” Spanberger told the crowd at her victory rally. “That in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our Commonwealth over chaos.”

This story has been updated.

The FBI is telling federal agents enforcing the Trump administration’s draconian immigration policies to start identifying themselves.

Last month, the bureau issued a bulletin to law enforcement agencies warning that criminals are pretending to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and engaging in crimes ranging from sexual assault to robbery, reports Wired. The bulletin said that officers need to start identifying themselves and cooperate when civilians ask them to verify who they are and what agency they work for. This includes being able to contact local police.

“Ensure law enforcement personnel [adequately] identify themselves during operations and cooperate with individuals who request further verification,” the bulletin states.

The document pointed out five different instances in which people pretending to be immigration officers committed crimes and targeted members of vulnerable communities. The criminals were able to take advantage of the fact that many federal immigration agents, including ICE, cover their faces and refuse to identify themselves while conducting raids and detaining suspected undocumented immigrants.

Criminals in one case allegedly pretended to be ICE agents in order to rob the ATM at a New York restaurant, and in another case, a woman wearing an ICE T-shirt tried to kidnap her ex-boyfriend’s wife. One man allegedly attempted to sexually assault a woman in a Brooklyn stairwell and stole her phone.

Federal rules in theory require immigration officers to identify themselves and state the reason for an arrest “as soon as it is practical and safe to do so.” But ICE’s practices on the ground have made it easy for criminals to impersonate agents, while also increasing public distrust in federal law enforcement.

If the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, which are problematic enough, at least required agents to follow federal rules and laws, this wouldn’t be a growing trend among criminals. Instead, anyone dressed in combat fatigues, covering their faces, and/or openly carrying firearms can pretend to work for the government and commit crimes because actual federal agents act almost the exact same.