Earle-Sears has previously confronted with heavy races. Her campaign for the Governor of Virginia is no different

Richmond, va. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is used to making formidable obstacles in her political campaigns, and her attempt to be Virginia’s next governor Is no exception.

The Jamaican immigrant, Marine veteran And Vrome Christian will first have to win the Republican Primary in June at a time when her party was taken over by President Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement. Then Earle-Sears will have to pursue moderate and independent voters in the general elections of November, while Democrats want to bind her to Trump’s revision of the federal government, an attempt that makes many Virginians worry about their future.

The shifting landscape in Washington already influences some voters in the densely populated provinces of Noord -Virginia, where if you don’t work for the government, you probably know someone who does. But Earle-Sears, who has long had conventional wisdom about what it means to be a conservative in Virginia, says she’s on the test.

“Life is a fight,” she said in a recent interview, “and we should not be surprised by a fight.”

Yet this fight has become more complex.

Before February, Earle-Sears was in line to face one potential Gop-Uitdager, an outsider who had done that Only $ 126 picked up for his campaignCompared to more than $ 2 million for the Lieutenant governor. Then Dave Larock, a former representative of the State, announced that he would run and promised to clear the state government by a “Virginia Department of Government Efficiency” that reflects the Doge of Elon Musk in the Trump government.

Soon former State Senator Amanda Chase was affiliated with the race. At the moment, however, it is unclear whether Larock or Chase will collect sufficient signatures to be eligible for the primary vote against next month’s deadline.

Because the Republican president has so far remained silent about his preferred candidate, Chase quickly reminded himself to remind voters that Earle-Sears kept her distance from Trump and his political movement in the past.

“Our current announced Republican nominee is a never trumper who really never came out and our president, President Donald J. Trump, has embraced,” Chase wrote in her campaign announcement.

In the event that it was not clear enough, she later added: “We want a Trump candidate for Governor.”

The Earle Sears campaign does not seem to worry: “Challengers can enter the race, but the outcome will be the same”-The victory, said her campaign in a statement.

Recent history may not promote Virginia Republicans this election season. Every time a new president has been elected since 1977, Virginia voted in a governor of the opposing party the following year.

Trump, praised by the rivals of Earle Sears, has never worn Virginia in his three presidential campaigns. Virginia Democrats have started tapping the proven antipathy of voters to the president and criticizing the Lieutenant Governor for Trump cuts defendclaim that they and other republicans support the unilateral federal jobs of the White House.

But Earle-Sears promotes himself as a politician who has overcome obstacles that some said they were insurmountable.

As black Republican, she said, she defies misconceptions about who should belong to which party. And although the 400-year history of Virginia could have doubts about the prospect of a black woman who is in the entire state, Earle-Sears broke that barrier.

Earle-Sears on the wall of her office had written Earle-Sears Biblical verses in addition to memories of such determination: “Come and do the impossible, winome. Come and tolerate the impossible, winning. Come and believe the impossible, winome. ‘Along the walls of her office benefit are framed photos of the first African -American members who were chosen in the general meeting of Virginia during the reconstruction and Coretta Scott King.

In some cases, the unexpected attitude of the Lieutenant Governor with regard to politics has led her to unexpected victories. That happened, for example, when she drove a democrat of 10 years in the House of Representatives at the start of her political career. Earle-Sears had only spend half the amount of money In the left district. In 2021, almost two decades after she last held the political office, Earle-Sears became the First black woman chosen.

She also had setbacks. She was conveniently defeated by the American Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat, in a 2004 race for the congress. When she ran to the US Senate in 2018 like one Writing candidateShe got less than 1% of the votes.

“It is absolutely the case that a black woman makes you a double minority, and a black Republican woman would make you a triple minority,” said Ernest McGowen, professor of political science at the University of Richmond. He added: “You may be able to bring some kind of life experience that may not have had some in the party. But you also have to confront some of the misconceptions and deep -rooted notions that some members of your party have.”

Virginia is one of the two states to choose 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 the attitude of the voter as he stays Winnow and eliminate agencies completely. About 300 federal employees and 100 government contractors have already applied for unemployment during the first three weeks of February in Virginia, according to the labor secretary of the State, George “Bryan” Slater, and those figures are expected to grow.

Yet there are some gap in the Republican Party of Virginia about loyalty to Trump.

Larock joined the rally “Stop the steal” Near the White House on January 6, 2021, although he said that he did not participate in the violence in the Capitol on that day. Pursuitwho described itself as ‘Trump in Heels’, was censored by the Senate of the State in 2021 after she seemed to be support on January 6 for people who had focused in the capital of the nation.

Earle-Sears had not merged Trump in recent years.

In 2020, She was co-chairman of a group Called Black Americans to re -sell President Trump. But after the Midperms of 2022 she said Trump was an obligation and suggested that it was time for the party go up. In her memoirs from 2023, Earle-Sears praised Trump’s policy during his first term, but she said: “For the well-being of the nation, I don’t 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 and posted his social media platform in 2022 on Truth Social, his social media platform: “Never felt good about Winsome Sears. I always thought she was a fake. Now I find out that she is. ”

Earle-Sears says she’s not deterred.

“I am a Christian, and so I go to guidance,” she said.

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Olivia Diaz is a member of the Corps for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non -profit National Service Program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.