The Patriot Post® · Winsome Sears: The Embodiment of the American Dream
Winsome Earle Sears has made history as the first black woman immigrant to become lieutenant governor of the state of Virginia. In fact, she’s the first minority woman to win any statewide office. She hits a lot of those intersectional boxes, but you won’t hear the Left lauding how she broke glass ceilings or color barriers. Why? Because she’s a strong Christian and a conservative Republican, and she stands against woke progressivism. This 57-year-old mother of three has a truly inspiring story.
Her father immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica in 1963, the height of the Civil Rights movement. He arrived with less than two dollars in his pocket and immediately started working and put himself through school. Education was the key to his success. He brought his daughter Winsome over to the states when she was six years old. She grew up in the Bronx.
At age 18, Winsome joined the U.S. Marine Corps even though she was still a citizen of Jamaica. Her love of this country and all it had done for her family is strong — a sharp contrast from Kamala Harris, also of Jamaican descent, who would love nothing better than to destroy this country. As Sears tells it: “I am not even a first-generation American. When I joined the Marine Corps I was still a Jamaican. But this country had done so much for me I was willing … to die for this country.” In the Marines, she served as an electrician and diesel mechanic and eventually married a Marine first lieutenant. She and her husband moved back to Norfolk, Virginia, and raised their family.
She eventually did become a naturalized citizen of the U.S., and after working in banking, she decided to heed a calling on her life that led her to a job as director of a homeless shelter for women and children called Hope Center, run by the Salvation Army. During this time, she also completed two undergrad degrees and a master’s degree from Regent University in Organizational Leadership. She, like her father before her, she deeply values education.
Her first experience running for political candidacy was in 2001 for the Virginia House of Delegates, during which she ran against a 20-year veteran incumbent. It was also her first experience with the bigotry against candidates who are “Christians first, Republicans second.” In spite of threats and intimidation, she continued to campaign and talk with voters. She ended up winning that election with 53% of the vote.
Her next venture into politics was a run for Congress, which she would end up losing by a significant margin. She retired to private life, served on the Virginia Board of Education, and finished raising her family.
This year’s campaign for lieutenant governor was her next opportunity for public service. It had the added tension of being a particularly important one. All eyes had been on the explosive gubernatorial election for months. Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat former Virginia governor, and Glenn Youngkin, the Republican hopeful, were going after the issue of education hammer and tongs when McAuliffe made that fatal statement that he didn’t “think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” As his campaign went downhill, he desperately starting flinging the label “racist” at Youngkin (typical Democrat behavior). This preposterous accusation sounded pretty hollow on November 3, when the diverse Republican candidates for lieutenant governor (Winsome Sears) and attorney general (Jason Miyares) joined Youngkin in the victory circle.
In her victory speech, Sears talked about her love for this country. She talked about the importance of education, saying: “Education will lift us all out of poverty because we must have marketable skills so our children cannot just survive, but they will thrive. We will create generational wealth. That’s what this is about.” This line of thinking is exactly what foisted Sears and Youngkin to victory after the ugly underbelly of public schools was exposed.
She also warned against the notion that America is an institutionally racist country, saying: “And so I say to you, there are some that want to divide us and we must not let that happen. They would like us to believe we are back in 1963 when my father came.” She then pointed out the achievements of black people in American society: “We can live where we want, we can eat what we want, we own the water fountains. We have had a black president not once, but twice, and here I am, living proof!”
Instead of celebrating the achievement of Ms. Sears, the mainstream media blasted her by suggesting she was a puppet of white supremacy. On MSNBC, professor Michael Eric Dyson told host Joy Reid that Sears was “a black mouth moving but a white idea running on the runway of the tongue of a figure who justifies and legitimates the white supremacist practices.” Disgusting.
Sears did not back down from this attack. She suggested Joy Reid have her on for a chance to talk and help Reid get her facts straight.
Winsome Sears is a lady who won’t back down from a just fight. She won Virginia on a ballot promising to defend gun rights, defend education by funding Historically Black Colleges and Universities and cleaning up the public schools, and fight vaccine mandates. She is the embodiment of the American Dream, and her victory in this moment brings back some much needed hope.