JUST IN: Beloved Virginia Republican Announces Run For Governor

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin may soon be handing off the corner office to a conservative successor who on Thursday announced her bid to lead the state she helped flip from blue to red.

Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, the first woman of color to hold statewide office in Virginia’s 236-year history, appears ready to jump into the race for governor, according to The Hill. Sears, whose campaign filed responsive paperwork on Thursday, stands to benefit from a groundswell of support among conservatives for her candidacy, especially after high-profile instances of speaking out against red meat issues like transgender accommodations in public schools or even among state lawmakers. She promises to reveal her plans during a “special announcement” at Virginia Beach later in the day.

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The 2025 gubernatorial showdown will pit Sears against Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who announced her bid late last year. Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney, a former competitor, has since dropped out of the contest and will now seek the lieutenant’s officer position that Sears will vacate. Rep. Spanberger has a healthy start to fundraising and in July reported collecting $7 million in the past eight months. Lt. Gov. Sears has a long way to go to catch up: financial records from earlier this summer show the Republican with $132,353 cash on hand. During 2021, Sears was able to raise and spend more than $1 million to capture her current office.

Gov. Youngkin has captured conservative hearts and minds since defeating Democrat and former governor Terry MacAuliffe to deliver Republicans their first statewide victory since 2009. He relied heavily on a backlash from parents in response to pandemic mandates and remote learning disrupting public schools, and MacAuliffe made matters worse for himself when he ham-handedly insisted that parents should take less of a role in educating their children. Sears has been a balancing force for Youngkin during their time in office, pushing the state’s base of left-leaning voters to move on from progressive debates over the sins of slavery. Following her election, the Jamaica-born Republican told NPR that her path to citizenship is an immigration success story that her party supports wholeheartedly. “I’m from another country, another culture,” Sears said. “But here I am. I see racism as one more hurdle in life.”