Showdown 2025: This Republican woman could become the country’s first black governor

EXCLUSIVE: Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears of Virginia could make history next year as the first Black woman in the country to win election for governor.

She would also make history as Virginia’s first female governor.

But Sears stressed in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital: “I’m not really running to make history. I’m just trying, like I said, to leave it better than I found it, and I want everyone to have the same opportunities that I did.”

Sears, who was born in the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica and immigrated to the United States as a 6-year-old, served in the Marines and is a former state legislator. Three years ago, she made history when she won election as Virginia’s first female lieutenant governor.

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Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears speaks during a rally September 5 at Chick’s Oyster Bar in Virginia Beach, Virginia, to announce that she is seeking her party’s nomination for governor of Virginia in 2025 becomes. (Kristen Zeis/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“You have to remember that my father came to America in 1963, just 17 days before Dr. King gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,” she said.

Sears noted that her father “saw an opportunity here, even though…as a black man you really couldn’t live where you wanted.”

“And yet, here I am, sitting right now as a deputy in the former capital of the Confederate States,” she said. “With me we can once again see that there are still opportunities, still opportunities to grow, still opportunities to get even better. We will be better, not bitter. We will not be victims. We are overcomers.”

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Sears has a major supporter in popular Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who three years ago became the first Republican in a dozen years to win a gubernatorial election in Virginia, a once-key swing state that has been shaded blue in recent cycles.

From left: Terrence Sears; Lieutenant Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears; Suzanne Youngkin; Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin; Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares; and Page Miyares hold hands as the governor leads the group in prayer at the State Capitol on January 15, 2022 in Richmond, Virginia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

But Virginia is unique because state law prohibits 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 “will be a great governor of Virginia.”

“I have to make sure we have Winsome Sears as our next governor,” he stressed. “I’m going to campaign hard.”

Sears argued that Youngkin, as a “successful businessman,” had “brought this success to the government,” emphasizing that “we want to continue what he started.”

“There is still a lot of work to be done, there are still regulations that we need to get rid of, there are still educational opportunities that need to be taken advantage of, and I am the one who carries that because I was a part of it,” she added.

Virginia and New Jersey are the only two states in the country that hold gubernatorial elections the year after a presidential election. For this reason, both contests received outsized national attention, and Virginia in particular is often viewed as an indicator of the national political climate and Americans’ attitudes toward the party in the White House.

Sears was interviewed in Virginia Beach on Thursday, a month away from President-elect Trump’s return to the White House.

In late 2022, she called Trump a liability after Republican candidates the then-former president supported underperformed in the midterm elections. And she said she would remain neutral in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

“I supported him in year 16 and in year 20 why? Because I saw that he was good for our country,” Sears noted.

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But she added that Trump “said some things and it bothered me. And as I said, I see this as a Christian. And so I thought, let’s see if there’s anyone else.”

Sears pointed to the attempted assassination of Trump in July as the moment that changed her mind.

“I was waiting to hear a change, and after he got shot and he accepted the nomination, I heard him say, ‘Miracles happen every day. I am one of them. God spared my life. And so I humbly ask for your vote.’ I was there straight away,” she emphasized.

Former President Trump is accompanied by his wife Melania after 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, continues to criticize Sears.

“She will ruin Republicans’ chances in Virginia in 2025, and we need another GOP candidate who is REALLY behind President Trump,” he argued on his radio show and in a social media post last month.

Asked if she would like Trump to campaign with her over the next 10 months leading up to the 2025 election, Sears replied: “I do I think he’ll have a lot to do in, well, DC. And if he wants to come here, that’s fine. If he wants to help, fine. I mean, you know, we could use all the help we can get.”

This Democratic lawmaker is running for governor of Virginia

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 nominee for governor.

Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, speaks at a campaign rally in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on November 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston, File)

Spanberger announced 13 months ago that she would run for governor in 2025 instead of seeking congressional re-election this year. Although a showdown between Sears and Spanberger is expected in the general election, recent reports suggest that longtime Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott is considering a run for governor.

“We’ll see what happens on the Democratic side, but I’ll take on whoever comes because I believe we have better policies,” Sears said.

She is viewed by political pundits as more socially conservative than Youngkin, who came from a Republican background.

Asked whether Sears was too far to the right for Virginia voters, Youngkin replied in his interview with Fox News Digital: “Not at all. And Winsome is a sensible conservative leader. We were partners literally from day one. We campaigned together.” . We were elected together.

But the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) pointed to criticism from Fredericks, who ran Trump’s campaign in Virginia in 2016 and 2020, arguing that “Virginia Republicans enter the 2025 election divided and are already publicly denouncing Winsome Sears.”

“This once again confirms that Sears must move even further to the right and take deeply damaging and out-of-touch positions to win the GOP nomination,” claimed DGA national press secretary Devon Cruz.

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When asked about the DGA criticism, which includes highlighting her stance on issues like abortion and IVF, Sears argued, “The Democrats are trying to find a way to beat me… I’m not worried about it. I let them say what they want to say. I have proven that I am doing the right thing.

“I have always said that I am a Christian first and a Republican second. I always am,” she added. “So it must mean that I don’t care about politics. For me it’s about service.”