Jamaican Lt. gov-elect revels in Southern comfort
Former Republican Delegate Winsome Sears celebrates
winning the race for Lt. Governor of Virginia as she introduces
Republican candidate for Governor Glenn Youngkin
during an election night party in Chantilly Virginia, U.S., Nov.
3, 2021. REUTERS/ Jonathan Ernst
Caribbean Life, NOVEMBER 12-18, 2021 11
Following a gubernatorial
election campaign predicted
to being a national referendum
on the state of the Democratic
Party, Winsome Sears, a naturalized
citizen from Jamaica made
history in America for being the
first Black elected lieutenant governor
in the history of the commonwealth
of Virginia.
Fifty-seven-year-old conservative
Republican Sears added to a
national conversation after making
history for her party, gender
and place of birth.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica
she migrated to the United States
with her parents at age six. She
grew up in the Bronx and from
early on, the ambitious immigrant
decidedly set her sights on
capitalizing on the much touted
American Dream.
“From the time my family
arrived in America from Jamaica
we have realized and appreciated
the opportunity that the US provided
us.”
As proof of her mission to succeed
in America, before changing
her immigration status, she volunteered
to fight for her adopted
nation.
“When I joined the Marine
Corps, I was still a Jamaican. But
this country had done so much
for me, I was willing, willing, to
die for this country,” Sears said
during her victory speech.
“She lost me there,” Paul
Smith, a Jamaican residing in
Canada said. “She didn’t have to
go that far.”
Although Sears’ triumphant
defeat over an incumbent initially
resonated with pride on the
island-nation, nationals at home
and abroad, women, and immigrants
throughout the diaspora
said the comment made them
uncomfortable and ‘difficult to
grasp.’
“She had a huge platform, she
could have used it to talk about
advances made in the south, the
historic contributions of Caribbean
immigrants or her own
personal testimony,” Jacqui Wilson
said.
“Instead she followed a playbook.”
Wilson said the statement was
“unnerving.”
Social media influencers
went viral reposting images
Sears shared earlier holding a
weapon in display of her support
for individual gun ownership.
Tik Tok trenders included
Jamaicans questioning how it
was possible for an immigrant
to show loyalty to a political
party that advocates weapons
of mass destruction against
Blacks and whose majority representatives
often espouse antiimmigration
policies.
An avowed Republican and
staunch supporter of Donald
Trump, Sears won 52.25 per
cent of the votes besting Democrat
Hala Ayala’s 47.75 percent.
In the 2020 election, the
former president lost the confidence
of voters who overwhelmingly
gave Joe Biden a majority.
Republican Glenn Youngkin
must have acknowledged the
messaging in the defeat because
throughout a contentious campaign
seemed to distance himself
from Trump’s rhetoric.
The strategy paid off because
voters in the southern state convincingly
endorsed the entire
Republican ticket headed by
Youngkin, a Trump endorsed,
candidate.
Sears made history becoming
the first Black Republican
woman elected to the Virginia
House in 2002, even then she
made history as the first naturalized
US citizen to serve in the
House. In 2021, she is now the
first Black woman to be elected
to statewide office in Virginia.
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