Jamaica-born Winsome Sears made history on January 15, after being sworn in as the first woman to serve as a Lt. Governor in Virginia. She is also the first Black woman to hold a statewide office in the Commonwealth. Sears was sworn in alongside Governor Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares.
In congratulating her at a reception following the swearing-in, Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Her Excellency Audrey Marks, said Sears had made Jamaica proud.
“How enormously proud we are of you, not only because you won but because you have done so with uncommon grace and have in the process drawn renewed, decidedly positive attention as an exemplar of Jamaicans here, representing respected models of responsible citizenship and as able, contributing members of the American society,” she said.
In November, Sears, a Marine veteran, defeated Democrat Hala Ayala by a two-point margin to become the second woman to serve in a statewide office in Virginia’s history. Attorney Gen. Mary Sue Terry, elected in 1985, was the first.
Sears lauds her Jamaican heritage.
In front of a crowd of supporters on election night, Sears made mention of her Jamaican heritage and said that her ascension to the second-highest office in the state represents the American dream.
“What you are looking at is the American dream,” she said with her husband Terrance and two of her three children behind her.
“When my father came to this country on August 11, 1963, he came at the height of the civil rights movement from Jamaica. He came here with just $1.75, worked any job he could find and started his American dream. When he came and got me at six years old, and when I landed at JKF, I landed in a new world,” she added.
The 57-year-old Sears emigrated from Jamaica when she was a child and grew up in the Bronx, New York. She majored in English and minored in economics at Old Dominion University and holds a master’s from Regent University.
She then served as an electrician in the United States Marines. “I am not even a first-generation American. When I joined the Marines, I was still a Jamaican. But this country had done so much for me that I was willing to die for this country,” she said.
Sears, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2004, previously served on the Virginia Board of Education. She was also appointed to the US Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee by former US President George W Bush. She served as a Marine pilot before running for office.
In response to Ambassador Marks, Lt. Governor Sears said she was honored and humbled to be sworn in as the first woman to this high office. She also promised that during her tenure, she would be partnering with the Embassy of Jamaica and the Ambassador to look at how they could collaborate in improving trade, education, and tourism and twinning with several towns.
