Republican Winsome Sears will be Virginia’s next lieutenant governor, making history as the first black woman to hold the office and the highest-ranking woman of color to be elected to office in Virginia.

Sears is an immigrant, a veteran, and a trailblazer. Born in Jamaica, she immigrated to the United States with her father when he had only $1.75 in his pocket and grew up in the Bronx, New York. She joined the Marines, where she was an electrician.

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