(audience cheering and applauding) >>Hashmi, Hashmi, Hashmi, Hashmi Hashmi, Hashmi, Hashmi, Hashmi!

GHAZALA HASHMI: Thank you, thank you.

You look amazing tonight.

Virginia looks amazing tonight!

(audience cheering and applauding) Well, good evening, Virginia.

Tonight, together, we have carved a new historic path.

Tonight... Tonight, Virginia, we have pointed our compass in a direction that guides us to the future while also building out our roots on our collective embrace of decency, dignity, and dedication.

(audience cheering and applauding) Virginia has chosen leadership that lifts up people instead of tearing them down and together we have proven that in Virginia, a child's name, a family's personal struggles and a community's identity are not barriers to belonging.

(audience cheering and applauding) I am so incredibly honored and humbled to stand before you as Virginia's lieutenant governor-elect, (audience cheering and applauding) but, as we all know, this moment of success is not mine alone.

It belongs to every Virginian who believes that our politics must be more hopeful, more inclusive, and focused on solving problems instead of scoring points on the backs of other people's pain!

(audience cheering and applauding) It belongs to every parent who aspires to strong educational opportunities for their children.

It belongs to all of our workers whose labor deserves respect and dignity.

(audience cheering and applauding) It belongs to the countless young people who refuse to sit on the sidelines and instead are charting a path forward through talent and skill, ingenuity and determination.

My own journey from a young child landing at the airport in Savannah to now being elected as the first Muslim woman to achieve statewide office, (audience cheering) the first Muslim woman to achieve statewide office not just in Virginia but in the entire country.

(audience cheering and applauding) And this was possible because of the depth and the breadth of the opportunities made available in this country and in this commonwealth.

And (audience cheering) I want to reflect just briefly on that journey from a childhood in Georgia to an educator's life in Virginia's college classrooms to state government representing the Richmond area in the state senate and now this statewide position.

(audience cheering and applauding) I first was compelled to run for office, because I wanted to respond rather than quietly observe the targeting and the scapegoating of marginalized communities.

I decided to run for public office, because no one in this country should be made to feel as though they are not welcome in their neighborhoods or in their own communities.

(audience cheering and applauding) Now I know that many of us feel as though the nation is in the midst of challenges that are much deeper and more intense than those we have faced before and that it will take us generations to repair.

But let us not forget that the challenges we endure today are not entirely new and they can be navigated.

We have been grappling with profound questions of our national identity, our nation's history, and its complex legacies for centuries.

This nation has not merely endured but it has risen from every crisis through introspection, resolution, and determination.

(audience cheering and applauding) And tonight, we've taken another step forward.

Tonight, today's elections and the voices of hundreds of thousands of voters tell us that we are ready to define a new path.

We are investing in the future.

We're building a commonwealth in which every child receives a high-quality education and is able to build a life and a career right here in Virginia.

(audience cheering and applauding) And we're charting a path forward to ensure we have access to affordable healthcare, childcare, and housing.

(audience cheering and applauding) And we will define our progress as successful when we translate that moral call to take care of each other making those into actions of a government that serves the people that it represents.

(audience cheering and applauding) So tonight, I just want to share a brief anecdote that resonates with me every single day.

It is an anecdote that I actually heard on the morning that I was sworn into office for the first time.

And I think of this story every time I decide on the legislation I'm going to carry, the budget items I will champion, and the votes that I will take.

And it's a simple story about the lamplighter.

Now, some of you may recall those days before modern electricity that the streets of our cities and towns and villages were illuminated by gas street lamps And every evening at dust, it was the task of the lamplighter to walk up and down the thoroughfare and light those street lamps.

Those lamps were essential because they guided people back home through the dusk and through the darkness.

And one evening, this particular lamplighter said to his young son, "Come with me this evening as we go about our work."

And the little boy said to the lamplighter, "Father, what is it that we are doing this evening?"

And he said, "Son, we are punching holes into darkness."

(audience cheering and applauding) Well, Virginia, tonight we are punching holes into darkness!

(audience cheering and applauding) When we protect public education, we are punching holes into darkness.

(audience applauding and cheering) When we give every Virginian access to healthcare, we are punching holes into darkness.

(audience applauding and cheering) When we ensure that not a single one of our neighbors goes to bed hungry at night, we are punching holes into darkness.

(audience applauding and cheering) So let us move forward, choosing compassion over callousness, democracy over demagoguery, courage over cowardice!

Only then, only then will we be able to continue punching holes into that darkness.

Virginia, thank you for the immense honor you've bestowed upon me.

(audience cheering and applauding) Let's get to work, Virginia.

Thank you!

(audience cheering and applauding)