New Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears shares why she returned to politics

Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears was a former Marine and credits gun confiscation laws against Black people for her staunch support of the Second Amendment. Sears, an immigrant to America at the age of six, began her political career as the first Black Republican woman in Virginia’s General Assembly. She later accepted presidential appointments, serving at the US Census Bureau, and on an advisory committee to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Sears continues to make history as the first Black woman to hold a statewide office.

Her return to politics comes after a personal tragedy. In 2012, her daughter and two granddaughters died in a car accident. Sears says she came back to politics because of a desire to create change, “I have always believed you can either light a candle, or you can curse the darkness. To curse the darkness is to be a victim, and I am not a victim. And so to light a candle is to find the solution.” Sears is interested in promoting the idea that in America, you can be what you want to be regardless of race. … (Excerpts from VPM/NPR)