Proud pro-gun Black conservative wins lieutenant governor race

Republican Winsome E. Sears is set to win Virginia’s race for lieutenant governor Wednesday morning, which will make her the first Black woman in the state’s second-highest office.

Sears, 57, was born in Jamaica and is Black.

“I’m telling you that what you are looking at is the American Dream,” Sears told supporters in a victory speech in Chantilly that highlighted the journey of her father from Jamaica to the United States, showing up in New York with just $1.75 in his pocket.

Sears has vowed to push for Virginia to fully fund historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I am Black and I’ve been Black all of my life,” she said, as her husband and two daughters stood behind her.

Her political career began in 2001, when as a young former U.S. Marine, Sears beat a long-term incumbent in a predominantly Democratic by promising voters state-funded school vouchers could help their children get a better education.

She served just one term in the House, leaving the political arena — in large part to care for a daughter with bipolar disorder who died in a 2011 car crash along with Sears’s two young granddaughters.

She has generated enthusiasm within the party’s conservative base through a campaign ad that featured a stone-faced Sears posing in a dress and blazer with an assault rifle.