Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears has announced her candidacy for governor. She aims to continue the work of the Youngkin-Sears administration.
If elected, she would become the first Black woman to serve as Virginia’s governor and the first Black woman in U.S. history to hold such a position. Earle-Sears, an immigrant from Jamaica and former U.S. Marine, highlighted the administration's achievements in improving community safety, boosting the economy, cutting taxes, and expanding educational choices for parents.
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(The Center Square) — The use of a male pronoun interrupted the Virginia Senate’s proceedings on Monday.
The state’s first senator to openly identify as transgender, Sen. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, addressed Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, who presides over the chamber, with some questions. Sears seemingly offhandedly referred to Roem as “sir” in her second response to the senator.
Roem quietly and immediately left the chamber. After a few moments, several other senators also rose and left. Sears tried to continue with the agenda but obliged when Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, requested a recess. They reconvened minutes later, but the commotion still appeared to be interfering with the Senate’s business, so Sears put the Senate at ease.
“Let it be known, I am not here to upset anyone. I am here to do the job that the people of Virginia have called me to do,” she said.
She softened some as she went on but still demanded that she be shown “respect and dignity,” appearing frustrated with the interruptions from the incident.
“It is never my intention to make anyone offended, and I hope that others would consider that they would try not to offend me, as well.”
She also exhorted the body to show grace to each other in such instances.
The chamber returned to its normal proceedings.
Roem did not make a public statement on Monday and was silent on X, formerly known as Twitter, where legislators sometimes comment on chamber business.
Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears used the podium in Prince William County to encourage Republicans to vote early.
Sears urged Republicans to participate in the growing practice of mail-in voting, a practice more Democrats than Republicans have adopted since introduced in Virginia in 2020. Sears said Rep. Jennifer Higgins (R-Virginia Beach) lost Virginia Beach City because more voters cast mail-in absentee ballots for the Democrat in the race. Kiggans won the overall vote but would have performed better had more Republicans voted, said Sears.
“Until the [absentee voting] rules change, we have to show up,” Sears told a sold-out crowd gathered for the annual Prince William County Republican Committee annual dinner at Old Hickory Golf Club in Woodbridge on April 1, 2023.
Conservatives have shown a propensity to vote on Election Day instead of mailing in a ballot following allegations of voter fraud and ballot harvesting in the 2020 Presidential Election. In some cases, ballots cast by Democrats outnumber those cases by Republicans by 10-1.
Sears urged the GOP to call “cicada” voters who cast ballots every four years in presidential elections and ask them to request a ballot be mailed to their home for the 2023 off-year election, where every seat in the Virginia General Assembly is up for grabs.
“They’re more likely to pick up a pen, fill in a bubble, and mail it back if the ballot is on their kitchen table,” said Sears.
Republicans need to hold the House of Delegates and pick up three seats in the State Senate to win control of state government. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin currently occupies the governor’s mansion until 2026.
Sears also called for the ousting of gender politics from the classroom and for a law allowing parents to use earmarked educational tax dollars to send their children to private charter schools. “We want school choice, and we want it now,” said Sears.
Several middle-class residents would use the school choice program, she adds. “Do you really think the rich are waiting for government programs to send their children to school?” Sears asked.
Several high-profile local offices are up for grabs, like the board of supervisors, school board seats, and commonwealth attorney. Matt Lowery is a Republican seeking to unseat one-term county commonwealth attorney Amy Ashworth, who was elected three years ago.
“The changes voters chose in 2019 came with consequences,” said Lowery, a prosecutor who worked in Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office under Ashworth’s predecessor, the retired Paul Ebert.
The number of felony grand jury indictments has fallen from more than 200 per month to about 75 monthly under Ashworth, while the county violent crime rate spiked 70% between 2019 and 2022.
Sears called on commonwealth attorneys across the state to encourage the General Assembly to pass legislation to lower the $1,000 cap on stolen goods that constitutes a felony charge.
Carrie Rist, running to unseat Democrat Babur Lateef as county school board chair at large while seeking the Republican endorsement, said elected leaders need to apologize to the children suffering academic and developmental setbacks from years of forced coronavirus classroom closures and online learning.
“They don’t want more programs. They don’t want to be told how to feel. They want to hear someone say, ‘I’m sorry…you had feared… you were isolated…I’m sorry you’re behind academically and socially…I’m sorry you were used as a political pawn,” said Rist.
Voters will head to the polls on November 7, 2023. Early voting begins Saturday, September 23.
