Winsome Sears: You're looking at the American Dream
Virginia lieutenant governor-elect reflects on her historic win on 'The Story.'
USA Today raised eyebrows for a report highlighting the "candidates of color" who made history in various election races on Tuesday but initially left out two of the night's biggest winners.
Virginia rocked the political world with Glenn Youngkin leading the Republican ticket to victory in the commonwealth that President Biden won by ten points last year. The two other big winners were Winsome Sears, who will become Virginia's first woman of color lieutenant governor, and Jason Miyares, who will be the state's first Hispanic attorney general.
However, neither of them was mentioned in USA Today's roundup of the diverse candidates that emerged victorious this week.
"As polls closed late Tuesday, states throughout the country saw a range of candidates of color racking up election wins in historic results," politics reporter Chelsey Cox began her report. "The gains ranged from mayoral elections to state offices, in many cases the first time such posts have been won by people of color or candidates from marginalized communities."
The report then listed several Democrats who won historic races like Asian-American Michelle Wu winning the Boston mayoral race, Eric Adams becoming the second Black mayor of New York City, Ed Gainey becoming the first Black mayor of Pittsburgh, Aftab Pureval becoming the first Asian-American mayor of Cincinnati and Michigan's Abdullah Hammoud becoming the first Arab-American mayor of a city with a high concentration of Arab population.
Critics bashed USA Today for the glaring omissions.
"Bang up journalism, USA Today," RealClearInvestigations senior writer Mark Hemingway reacted.
"The corrupt corporate media isn't interested in reporting accurately. They're only interested in advancing their leftist agenda," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted.
"This why ordinary people just kind of assume the media is lying or only telling part of the story in service to some ideological agenda. Almost every time, that’s exactly what’s happening," The Federalist political editor John Daniel Davidson wrote.
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"I would really love a Stelter or a Darcy to explain how stuff like this isn't responsible for the completely eroded trust that so many people have in the media. It's not that we're being told that you're bad. We're seeing it for ourselves," Tablet Magazine CTO Noam Blum said.
"Outrageous," Republican Nevada Senate candidate Adam Laxalt exclaimed. @WinsomeSears and @JasonMiyaresVA are getting erased by the liberal media because of their party affiliation. They deserve recognition for what they achieved last night."
"It's infuriating that so many in the press insist on pretending minorities who do not agree with the far-left should not count as minorities. It's a consistent and shameful pattern," conservative writer AG Hamilton tweeted.
After Fox News reached out for comment, USA Today updated its report to include Sears and Miyares. A disclaimer at the top of the article now reads, "This story has been updated to reflect additional races that were called on Wednesday." Sears was also included in the report's new headline.
Gannett, USA Today's parent company, sent Fox News other articles and analysis pieces that included references to Sears and Miyares. However, unlike the report focused on winning candidates of color, the others require a paid subscription to the newspaper.
"The Miyares and Sears races weren’t called last night when we initially wrote and posted the story referenced in your inquiry, but we had planned to update it with the Virginia results today. We’ve now updated to reflect the Sears and Miyares victories," Gannett told Fox News.
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., November 3, 2021. REUTERS/ Jonathan Ernst (REUTERS/ Jonathan Ernst)
Much of the media have downplayed or even ignored the historic victories in Virginia last night, particularly since liberal commentators and TV hosts have suggested Youngkin won as a result of white grievance, white nationalism and white supremacy, which conflicts with the wins of Sears and Miyares.
Neither CNN nor MSNBC aired Sears' moving victory speech, offering an optimistic message of unity and rejecting liberals' emphasis on race.
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"I am not even a first-generation American. 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 told the crowd. "I say to you, there are some who want to divide us and we must not let that happen. They would like us to believe we are back in 1963 when my father came. We can live where we want, we can eat where we want, we own the water fountains. We have had a Black president elected not once but twice and here I am living proof!"
"In case you haven't noticed, I am Black. And I have been Black all my life… but that's not what this is about. We are going to do is we are going to now be about the business of the commonwealth," Sears added.
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