17 Facts About Winsome Sears

Winsome Sears is a Jamaican-American politician serving as the 42nd lieutenant governor of Virginia.

Winsome Sears served on the Virginia Board of Education, and she ran unsuccessfully for the US House of Representatives in Virginia's 3rd congressional district in 2004 and for US Senate in 2018.

Winsome 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.

Winsome Sears was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 11,1964, and she immigrated to the United States at the age of six.

Winsome Sears served as an electrician in the United States Marines from 1983 to 1986.

In 2004, Winsome Sears unsuccessfully challenged Democrat Bobby Scott for Virginia's 3rd congressional district seat.

Winsome Sears opened a home appliance business in Virginia after her 2004 election loss.

In September 2018, Winsome Sears entered the race for US Senate as a write-in candidate after Corey Stewart won the Republican nomination, citing his past alliances with white nationalists and other racial controversies.

Winsome Sears was inaugurated as the 42nd lieutenant governor of Virginia on January 15,2022.

Winsome Sears is the first female lieutenant governor of Virginia as well as the first black woman lieutenant governor and statewide office-holder in the Commonwealth.

Later in her 2021 campaign, WRIC-TV wrote that Winsome Sears "appeared to backtrack" on her initial comments about the Texas Heartbeat Act.

Winsome Sears said she did not examine the Texas law, and she declined to state when she thought abortion should be made illegal.

In 2021, Winsome Sears said she supported medical marijuana but opposed the legalization of marijuana for recreational use.

Winsome Sears has called for the opening of more charter schools, lab schools, and virtual schools in Virginia.

Winsome Sears has argued that critical race theory was "definitely being taught in some form or fashion" in Virginia schools, and accused critics of using "semantics" to deny it.

Winsome Sears called the CRT concept "racist;" she said the good and bad of American history should be taught.

One of Winsome Sears's daughters died in a 2012 car crash, along with Winsome Sears's two young granddaughters.