RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is used to facing formidable obstacles in her political campaigns, and her bid to be Virginia’s next governor is no exception.
The Jamaican immigrant, Marine veteran and devout Christian will first need to win the Republican primary in June at a time when her party has been taken over by President Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement. Then Earle-Sears will have to woo moderate and independent voters in the November general election as Democrats look to tie her to Trump’s overhaul of the federal government, an effort that has many Virginians worried about their future.
The shifting landscape in Washington is already impacting some voters in the densely populated counties of northern Virginia, where if you don’t work for the government, you probably know someone who does. But Earle-Sears, who has long defied conventional wisdom on what it means to be a conservative in Virginia, says she is up to the test.
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“Life is a fight,” she said in a recent interview, “and we shouldn’t be surprised by a fight.”
Still, this fight has grown more complex.
Before February, Earle-Sears was in line to face one potential GOP challenger, an outsider who had only raised $126 for his campaign, compared with more than $2 million for the lieutenant governor. Then Dave LaRock, a former state delegate, announced he would run, pledging to cull state government through a “Virginia Department of Government Efficiency” that mirrors Elon Musk’s DOGE in the Trump administration.
Soon ex-state Sen. Amanda Chase joined the race. At this point, however, it is unclear whether LaRock or Chase will gather enough signatures to qualify for the primary ballot by next month’s deadline.
With the Republican president staying quiet so far about his preferred candidate, Chase quickly reminded voters that Earle-Sears has kept her distance from Trump and his political movement in the past.
“Our current announced Republican nominee is a Never Trumper who has really never come out and embraced our President, President Donald J. Trump,” Chase wrote in her campaign announcement.
In case that wasn’t clear enough, she later added: “We want a Trump candidate for governor.”
The Earle-Sears campaign doesn’t seem worried: “Challengers can enter the race, but the outcome will be the same” – victory, her campaign said in a statement.
Recent history may not favor Virginia Republicans this election season. Every time a new president has been elected since 1977, the following year Virginia has voted in a governor from the opposite party.
Trump, who is praised by Earle-Sears’ rivals, has never carried Virginia in his three presidential campaigns. Virginia Democrats have begun tapping into voters’ demonstrated antipathy toward the president and are criticizing the lieutenant governor for defending Trump’s spending cuts, arguing she and other Republicans support the White House’s unilateral sweeping away of federal jobs.
But Earle-Sears is promoting herself as a politician who has overcome obstacles that some said were insurmountable.
As a Black Republican, she said, she defies misconceptions about who should belong to what party. And while Virginia’s 400-year history might cast doubt on the prospect of a Black woman holding statewide office, Earle-Sears broke that barrier.
Taped to the wall of her office, Earle-Sears had written out Biblical verses next to reminders of such determination: “Come and do the impossible, Winsome. Come and endure the impossible, Winsome. Come and believe the impossible, Winsome.” Lining the walls of her office suite are framed photos of the first African American members elected to the Virginia General Assembly during Reconstruction and of Coretta Scott King.
In some cases, the lieutenant governor’s unvarnished attitude toward politics has led her to unexpected victories. That happened, for example, when she ousted a 10-term Democrat in the House of Delegates at the outset of her political career. Earle-Sears had spent just half the amount of money in the left-leaning district. In 2021, nearly two decades after she last held political office, Earle-Sears became the first Black woman elected statewide.
She’s had setbacks, too. She was handily defeated by U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat, in a 2004 race for Congress. When she ran for the U.S. Senate in 2018 as a write-in candidate, she got less than 1% of the vote.
“It’s definitely the case that being a Black woman makes you a double minority, and being a Black Republican woman would make you a triple minority,” said Ernest McGowen, a political science professor at the University of Richmond. He added: “You may be able to bring a kind of life experience that maybe some in the party have not had. But you also have to confront some of the misconceptions and deep-seated notions that some members of your party may have.”
Virginia is one of two states picking a new governor this year and is also one of the top states for federal jobs. Trump’s agenda will undoubtedly play a role in voter attitudes as he continues to winnow and entirely eliminate agencies. Roughly 300 federal workers and 100 government contractors already applied for unemployment during the first three weeks of February in Virginia, according to the state’s labor secretary, George “Bryan” Slater, and those numbers are expected to grow.
Still, there are some divides in the Virginia Republican Party over loyalties to Trump.
LaRock joined the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, though he has said he did not participate in the violence at the Capitol on that day. Chase, who has described herself as “Trump in heels,” was censured by the state Senate in 2021 after she seemed to voice support for people who had rioted in the nation’s capital on Jan. 6.
Earle-Sears had not cozied up to Trump in recent years.
In 2020, she co-chaired a group called Black Americans to Re-elect President Trump. But after the 2022 midterms, she said Trump was a liability and suggested it was time for the party to move on. In her 2023 memoir, Earle-Sears commended Trump’s policies during his first term, but she said, “For the good of the nation, I do not think he should run again in 2024.” Last August, she said she would vote for him, according to Lynchburg’s News and Advance.
Trump has criticized Earle-Sears, posting on Truth Social, his social media platform, in 2022: “Never felt good about Winsome Sears. Always thought she was a phony. Now I find out she is.”
Earle-Sears says she is undeterred.
“I’m a Christian, and so that’s where I go to for guidance,” she said.
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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
