Sears is the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Virginia and is the first woman of color and first Jamaican-born American citizen elected to statewide office in Virginia.[2][3]
In September 2018, Sears entered the race for U.S. Senate as a write-in candidate after Corey Stewart won the Republican nomination, citing his past alliances with white nationalists and other racial controversies.[17] She received less than 1% of the vote.[18]
Following the 2022 midterms, where Trump-endorsed Republicans lost in critical battleground states, Sears criticized Trump and called him a liability on the party and said she would not support Trump in the 2024 presidential election.[21] She later declared her support for Trump after he became the presumptive nominee.[22]
On May 11, 2021, Sears won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor of Virginia on the fifth ballot, defeating former state delegate and second-place finisher Tim Hugo 54% to 46%.[8] On November 2, 2021, she won the race along with gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin and attorney general candidate Jason Miyares.[23] She was inaugurated as the 42nd lieutenant governor of Virginia on January 15, 2022. She is the first female lieutenant governor of Virginia as well as the first black woman lieutenant governor and statewide officeholder in the Commonwealth.[2][3]
During the election campaign, she declined to state whether she had been vaccinated against COVID-19,[24] but she encouraged others to get vaccinated.[25]
2025 gubernatorial election
On September 5, 2024, Sears announced her candidacy for governor of Virginia in 2025. If she wins, she will be the state's first female governor, and the first black woman to be elected governor anywhere in the United States.[26]
Political positions
Abortion
During her campaign for lieutenant governor, Sears initially said she would support legislation similar to the Texas Heartbeat Act, which would make an abortion illegal as soon as fetal heartbeat was detected (as early as six weeks).[15] She has stated that abortion should be allowed in cases of rape and incest, or to prevent harm to a pregnant woman.[27] Later in her 2021 campaign, WRIC-TV wrote that Sears "appeared to backtrack" on her initial comments about the Texas Heartbeat Act.[28] Sears said she did not examine the Texas law, and she declined to state when she thought abortion should be made illegal.[28] After Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Sears announced her support for a 15-week abortion ban.[29]
Sears has argued that critical race theory (CRT) was "definitely being taught in some form or fashion" in Virginia schools and accused critics of using "semantics" to deny it.[34]Politifact rated as "False" Glenn Youngkin's claim that critical race theory has "moved into all of our schools in Virginia." The site found that, though CRT had been discussed among educators, it was not part of the state's "Standards of Learning", and several school districts denied teaching it to students.[35] Sears called the CRT concept "racist;" she also said the good and bad of American history should be taught.[3][36]
After COVID-19 interrupted schooling in the state, Sears floated the possibilities of having year-round school or longer school days to make up lost educational time.[37]
Sears supports gun rights.[28] Her 2021 lieutenant gubernatorial campaign included a photo of Sears with a rifle that was used on campaign material and social media, which drew criticism from Democrats[42] but also increased her prominence among Republicans, helping elevate her from political obscurity.[27][43]
Personal life
Sears is married to Terence Sears.[44] She has had three daughters. One of Sears's daughters died in a 2012 car crash, along with Sears's two young granddaughters.[45] As of 2016, she and her family resided in Winchester.[46] She is a devout Christian,[47] and authored a Christian self-help book, Stop Being a Christian Wimp!, before entering politics.[48][27]
^Earle-Sears, Winsome (February 5, 2022). "Winsome Earle-Sears column: Creating a better education for Virginia's next generation". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved February 17, 2022. We can do that with an Education Savings Account, by utilizing the Virginia Education Improvement Scholarship Tax Credit, and by opening more charter schools, lab schools and virtual schools.
^"If Critical Race Theory means that telling a child that once you emerge from the womb you are a racist and a colonizer and whatever else, that's not going to be good. That's going to create morale problems for everybody. ... If we're going to teach about African American history, why just keep it to one month? Let's teach it throughout. Let's talk about these things. You can't escape history. Let's talk about the good, the bad and the ugly." (Duster/CNN, 2021)
Italics indicate next-in-line of succession for states and territories without a directly elected lieutenant governor or whose lieutenant governor office is vacant:
