By newsfirstusa 
EXCLUSIVE: Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears of Virginia may build historical past nearest 12 months because the crowd’s first Cloudy lady to win election as a governor.
She would additionally build historical past as Virginia’s first female governor.
However Sears, in an unique nationwide interview with Fox Information Virtual, emphasised that “I’m not really running to make history. I’m just trying to, as I’ve said before, leave it better than I found it, and I want everyone to have the same opportunities I had.”
Sears, who was once born within the Caribbean island crowd of Jamaica and immigrated to the U.S. as a 6-year-old, served within the Marines and is a former environment lawmaker. She made historical past 3 years in the past when she gained election as Virginia’s first feminine lieutenant governor.
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Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears speaks throughout a rally held to announce she’s going to search her birthday celebration’s nomination for Virginia governor in 2025 at Chick’s Oyster Bar in Virginia Seaside, Virginia, on Sept. 5. (Kristen Zeis/For The Washington Put up by the use of Getty Pictures)
“You’ve got to remember that my father came to America in ‘63 just 17 days before Dr. King gave his ’I Have a Dream speech,’ she said.
Sears noted that her father “noticed alternative right here, even if… you in reality couldn’t, as a Cloudy individual, reside the place you sought after.”
“And but, right here I’m, right here I’m sitting presently as 2d in command within the former capital of the Accomplice States,” she said. “With me, we will be able to see as soon as once more, there are nonetheless alternatives, nonetheless alternatives to develop, nonetheless alternatives to do even higher. We’re going to be higher, no longer sour. We’re no longer committing to be sufferers. We’re overcomers.”
VIRGINIA’S YOUNGKIN ENDORSES HIS LT. GOVERNOR TO SUCCEED HIM
Sears has a big supporter in widespread Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who three years ago became the first Republican in a dozen years to win a gubernatorial election in Virginia, a onetime key swing state that had shaded blue in recent cycles.
From left: Terrence Sears; Virginia Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Sears; Suzanne Youngkin; Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin; Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares; and Page Miyares hold hands as the governor leads the group in prayer at the State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, on Jan. 15, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
But Virginia is unique due to its state law preventing governors from serving two consecutive four-year terms, so Youngkin cannot run for re-election next year.
Youngkin told Fox News Digital last month that Sears “goes to be a wonderful governor of Virginia.”
“I’ve to build certain that we’ve got Winsome Sears as our nearest governor,” he emphasized. “I’m committing to be campaigning crispy.”
Making the case that Youngkin as a “a hit businessman” has “introduced that luck to executive,” Sears highlighted that “we need to proceed what he has begun.”
“There’s nonetheless a lot paintings to do, nonetheless laws that we’ve were given to eliminate, nonetheless tutorial alternatives which might be desiring to be taken good thing about, and I’m the only to hold that, as a result of I’ve been a part of that,” she added.
Sears was interviewed in Virginia Beach on Thursday, with a month to go until President-elect Trump returns to the White House.
In late 2022, she described Trump as a liability after Republican candidates that the then-former president had backed underperformed in the midterm elections. And she said that she would remain neutral in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
“I supported him in 16 and in 20 why? As a result of I noticed that he was once excellent for our nation,” Sears famous.
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However she added that Trump “stated some issues, and it me. And as I stated, I come at this as a Christian. And so I figured, smartly, let’s see if there’s anyone else.”
Sears pointed to July’s attempted assassination of Trump as the moment that changed her mind.
“I used to be ready to listen to a metamorphosis, and then he was once shot and he was once accepting the nomination, I heard him say, ‘miracles are happening every day. I am one of those. God has spared my life. And so, I humbly ask for your vote.’ I used to be on board proper later,” she emphasized.
Former President Trump is joined by his wife Melania following his address at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
But a top Trump supporter in Virginia, conservative radio host John Fredericks, has continued to criticize Sears.
“She’ll spoil Republicans’ possibilities in Virginia in 2025 and we’d like a special GOP candidate that REALLY has President Trump’s again,” he argued last month on his radio program and in a social media post.
Asked if she’d like Trump to campaign with her over the next 10 months leading up to the 2025 election, Sears said, “I suppose he’s committing to be having a accumulation to do in, smartly, in D.C. And if he desires to come back right here, positive. If he desires to support, positive. I heartless, you recognize, shall we importance all of the support that we will be able to get.”
THIS DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKER IS RUNNING FOR VIRGINIA GOVERNOR
Sears, who launched her gubernatorial bid in early September, avoided a competitive primary when Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares announced last month that he would seek re-election rather than run for governor.
Three-term Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer, is her party’s candidate for governor.
Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, speaks at a campaign rally in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Nov. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston, File)
Spanberger announced 13 months ago that she would run for governor in 2025 rather than seek congressional re-election this year. While a Sears-Spanberger general election showdown is expected, recent reports indicate longtime Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott is mulling a gubernatorial run.
“We will be able to see what shakes out at the Democrat facet, however I will be able to face whoever comes, as a result of I imagine that we’ve got the simpler insurance policies,” Sears said.
She is viewed by political pundits as more socially conservative than Youngkin, who hailed from the GOP’s business wing.
Asked if Sears was too far to the right for Virginia voters, Youngkin pushed back in his Fox News Digital interview, saying, “By no means. And Winsome is a common-sense conservative chief. Now we have been companions actually from life one. We campaigned in combination. We had been elected in combination. Now we have ruled in combination.”
But the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), pointing to the criticism from Fredericks, who chaired Trump’s Virginia campaign in 2016 and 2020, argued that “Virginia Republicans are kicking off the 2025 election divided and already publicly calling out Winsome Sears.”
“This as soon as once more confirms that Sears must run even additional to the fitting and jerk deeply destructive and out-of-touch positions to win the GOP nomination,” DGA national press secretary Devon Cruz claimed.
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Sears, asked about the DGA criticism, which also includes spotlighting her stances on issues such as abortion and IVF, argued that “the Democrats try to determine a strategy to accident me… I don’t fear about it. I allow them to say what they need to say. I’m confirmed, confirmed to do the fitting factor.”
“I’ve all the time stated I’m a Christian first and a Republican 2d. That’s all the time who I’m,” she added. “So it should heartless that I don’t support about politics. I support about serving.”