2025 showdown: This Republican woman may become nation's first Black female governor

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Republican woman who may become nation's first Black female governor says she's 'not really running to make history,' just 'leave it better than I found it.'

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, the Republican candidate in next year's Virginia gubernatorial election, sits down with Fox News Digital to detail her campaign.

EXCLUSIVE: Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears of Virginia could make history next year as the nation's first Black woman to win election as a governor.

She would also make history as Virginia's first female governor.

But Sears, in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital, emphasized that "I'm not really running to make history. I'm just trying to, as I've said before, leave it better than I found it, and I want everyone to have the same opportunities I had."

Sears, who was born in the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica and immigrated to the U.S. as a six-year-old, served in the Marines and is a former state lawmaker. She made history three years ago when she won election as Virginia's first female lieutenant governor. 

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Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears speaks during a rally held to announce that she will seek her party's nomination for Virginia governor in 2025 at Chick's Oyster Bar in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Sept. 5. (Kristen Zeis/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

"You've got to remember that my father came to America in ‘63 just 17 days before Dr. King gave his ’I Have a Dream speech,' she said.

Sears noted that her father "saw opportunity here, even though . . . you really couldn't, as a Black person, live where you wanted."

"And yet, here I am, here I am sitting right now as second in command in the former capital of the Confederate States," she said. "With me, we can see once again, there are still opportunities, still opportunities to grow, still opportunities to do even better. We are going to be better, not bitter. We're not going to be victims. We're overcomers."

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Sears has a major supporter in popular Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who three years ago became the first Republican in a dozen years to win a gubernatorial election in Virginia, a onetime key swing state that had shaded blue in recent cycles.

From left: Terrence Sears; Virginia Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Sears; Suzanne Youngkin; Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin; Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares; and Page Miyares hold hands as the governor leads the group in prayer at the State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, on Jan. 15, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

But Virginia is unique due to its state law preventing governors from serving two consecutive four-year terms, so Youngkin cannot run for re-election next year.

Youngkin told Fox News Digital last month that Sears "is going to be a fabulous governor of Virginia."

"I have to make sure that we have Winsome Sears as our next governor," he emphasized. "I’m going to be campaigning hard."

Making the case that Youngkin as a "successful businessman" has "brought that success to government," Sears highlighted that "we want to continue what he has begun."

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"There's still much work to do, still regulations that we've got to get rid of, still educational opportunities that are needing to be taken advantage of, and I am the one to carry that, because I've been part of that," she added.

Virginia and New Jersey are the only two states in the nation to hold gubernatorial elections in the year after a presidential election. Because of that, both contests receive outsized national attention, and Virginia in particular is often seen as a bellwether of the national political climate and how Americans feel about the party in the White House.

Sears was interviewed in Virginia Beach on Thursday, with a month to go until President-elect Trump returns to the White House.

In late 2022, she described Trump as a liability after Republican candidates that the then-former president had backed underperformed in the midterm elections. And she said that she would remain neutral in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.

"I supported him in ‘16 and in ’20 why? Because I saw that he was good for our country," Sears noted.

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But she added that Trump "said some things, and it bothered me. And as I said, I come at this as a Christian. And so I figured, well, let's see if there's somebody else."

Sears pointed to July's attempted assassination of Trump as the moment that changed her mind.

"I was waiting to hear a change, and after he was shot and he was accepting the nomination, I heard him say, ‘miracles are happening every day. I am one of those. God has spared my life. And so, I humbly ask for your vote.’ I was on board right then," she emphasized.

Former President Trump is joined by his wife Melania following his address at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18. (Fox News - Paul Steinhauser)

But a top Trump supporter in Virginia, conservative radio host John Fredericks, has continued to criticize Sears.

"She’ll ruin Republicans' chances in Virginia in 2025, and we need a different GOP candidate that REALLY has President Trump’s back," he argued last month on his radio program and in a social media post.

Asked whether she'd like Trump to campaign with her over the next 10 months leading up to the 2025 election, Sears said, "I think he's going to be having a lot to do in, well, in D.C. And if he wants to come here, fine. If he wants to help, fine. I mean, you know, we could use all the help that we can get."

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Sears, who launched her gubernatorial bid in early September, avoided a competitive primary when Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares announced last month that he would seek re-election rather than run for governor.

Three-term Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer, is her party's candidate for governor.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, speaks at a campaign rally in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Nov. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston, File)

Spanberger announced 13 months ago that she would run for governor in 2025 rather than seek congressional re-election this year. While a Sears-Spanberger general election showdown is expected, recent reports indicate longtime Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott is mulling a gubernatorial run.

"We will see what shakes out on the Democrat side, but I will face whoever comes, because I believe that we have the better policies," Sears said.

She is viewed by political pundits as more socially conservative than Youngkin, who hailed from the GOP's business wing.

Asked whether Sears was too far to the right for Virginia voters, Youngkin pushed back in his Fox News Digital interview, saying, "Not at all. And Winsome is a commonsense conservative leader. We have been partners literally from day one. We campaigned together. We were elected together. We have governed together."

But the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), pointing to the criticism from Fredericks, who chaired Trump's Virginia campaign in 2016 and 2020, argued that "Virginia Republicans are kicking off the 2025 election divided and already publicly calling out Winsome Sears."

"This once again confirms that Sears will have to run even further to the right and take deeply harmful and out-of-touch positions to win the GOP nomination," DGA national press secretary Devon Cruz claimed.

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Sears, asked about the DGA criticism, which also includes spotlighting her stances on issues such as abortion and IVF, argued that "the Democrats are trying to figure out a way to hit me . . . I don't worry about it. I let them say what they want to say. I am proven, proven to do the right thing."

"I've always said I'm a Christian first and a Republican second. That's always who I am," she added. "So, it must mean that I don't care about politics. I care about serving."