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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Virginia's first Black woman lieutenant1 governor says we need to move on from slavery
On Saturday, Republican Winsome2 Sears will make history in Virginia by becoming the first Black woman to hold statewide office when she is sworn in as lieutenant governor alongside the governor-elect, Republican Glenn Youngkin.
Sears will preside over the state Senate and cast tie-breaking votes that could prove decisive on her political priorities, including restricting abortion3 and adding new charter schools. The Jamaican-born Republican frames her success as proof that the U.S. is progressing when it comes to race.
"I'm from another country, another culture," Sears says. "But here I am. I see racism4 as one more hurdle5 in life."
The 57-year-old doesn't fit easily into a box. In her campaign literature, Sears is a gun-toting Marine6 Corps7 veteran who will banish8 Critical Race Theory from Virginia's schools. Sears is also a philanthropist, a former director of a homeless shelter and a volunteer for a prison ministry9. And she is a comeback story – someone who overcame a traumatic childhood, political setbacks and family tragedy to come within one heartbeat of the governor's mansion11.
Sears plans to use her new power to address what she sees as pressing problems: a country that under-educates its children and over-taxes its citizens, as well as a state unwilling12 to move on from its dark past.
"Slavery happened, absolutely," Sears says. "And there are some vestiges13 of it. But how long are we going to go back there?"
A fiery14 response to a racial reckoning
It's an uncommon15 message for Black politicians in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy. Virginia has been shaped by centuries of racial trauma10, from slavery to redlining. Democrats17 have been talking more about the lingering impact of those scars since racial justice protests rocked the country in 2020.
For supporters like Bishop18 E.W. Jackson, a former GOP candidate for lieutenant governor who is also Black, Sears embodies19 a firey Republican response to a racial reckoning that's gone too far – a response to the idea that the U.S. remains20 rooted in white supremacy21.
"The people who traffic in that, and benefit from that, hate Winsome Sears because she's the antithesis22 of that and proves the thesis that America is a place of decency23 and fairness," Jackson says.
In her campaign, Sears ran as a pro-Trump24 underdog who lit up crowds with her speeches. Off-stage, she remained deeply religious, listening to worship music as she crisscrossed the state. Her name recognition – dimmed after two decades out of office – was propelled by the iconic photo of her holding her military-style rifle, taken at a gun range while on the trail.
Sears has spent the last two months training for her new role, watching footage of the state's current lieutenant governor, Democrat16 Justin Fairfax. Democrats hold a 21-19 advantage in the state Senate, meaning Sears, like Fairfax, could break ties when a Democrat breaks ranks.
The soon-to-be lieutenant governor's critics note she came to power on a ticket fueled by racial themes. Taking a cue from former President Donald Trump, Sears and Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin claimed that equity25 programs in schools – designed to address systemic racism – were pitting students against each other and painting an overly pessimistic portrait of U.S. history.
Ravi Perry, chair of Howard University's political science department, says Youngkin and Sears' rhetoric26 misrepresented the reality of Virginia classrooms, where he says the history of slavery is still undertaught.
"It gave them a chance to harp27 on an issue that really does not exist," Perry says. "The rhetoric is not only divisive and tiring and exhausting, it's also inaccurate28."
That's not the only Trumpian talking point that Sears repeated on the campaign trail. "I guess dead people voted," she told members of the Fairfax GOP in February, winking29 at false claims of widespread election fraud. "We Republicans have never been able to get our dead folks to vote."
A bootstraps biography
Sears says she grew up around newspapers and dinner-table political chatter30 in Jamaica. At the age of 6, Sears moved to New York to follow after her father. Everything was unfamiliar31 – the smells, the cold, the deadbolts on her apartment door in the Bronx. Her family wasn't wealthy; she says her father arrived in the U.S. in 1963 with only $1.75 in his pocket.
"When I stepped off that plane at JFK, it was very traumatic because I stepped into a new world," Sears says.
But she thrived in her new home. Sears graduated high school early, joined the Marine Corps, got a master's degree, raised three children, served in Virginia's legislature and on the state Board of Education, and started her own business.
In 2001, she became the first Black Republican elected to Virginia's General Assembly since Reconstruction32. She pulled off the win in a heavily Black and Democratic district in Hampton Roads against a longtime incumbent33 who was ensnared in scandal.
Sears' win shocked the political establishment. Backers like Republican state Sen. John Cosgrove says Sears showed up in public housing developments where residents had long been ignored. As a lawmaker, he says Sears was an independent-minded conservative who got along with everyone.
"She was never one to back down from a position that she had taken and nobody expected her to," Cosgrove says.
Sears' legislative34 record doesn't have the same blistering35 tone as her later campaign rhetoric. Many of the dozen or so bills she sponsored during her time in the legislature had bipartisan support, including a successful push to reform the state's medical board. She was one of two Republicans to vote against a GOP effort to raise taxes. When Sears announced her resignation after a single term, the editorial board of the Virginian-Pilot lamented36 the "loss of moderating voices" in the chamber37.
A more divisive tone
Sears' next move – an unsuccessful 2004 campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives – tested that label. According to the Daily Press, Sears ran a TV ad claiming that her opponent, Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott, had voted against legislation that would make child pornography a crime. Scott noted38 that it was already a crime and said Sears was misconstruing his record. Sears also claimed Scott had "forced" Virginians to accept same-sex marriage because of his vote against a constitutional amendment39 that would ban the practice.
After her loss, Sears published a book, Stop Being a Christian40 Wimp41, and opened a home appliance business. In 2011, she was appointed to the state Board of Education where she served as vice42 president. Sears defended the board's efforts to create different testing benchmarks in reading and math for students of different races, with lower standards for Black and Latino students compared to white ones. "We're starting with Black children where they are," Sears told NPR at the time.
Then, in 2012, Sears suffered a family tragedy. One of her daughters, as well as two grandchildren, were killed in a car accident. When she got the proverbial knock on the door, Sears says a Bible verse came to mind: "It was 'The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord,' " Sears recalls. "And then I collapsed43."
Sears re-emerged on the political scene in 2018 when she staged a write-in campaign against Republican Corey Stewart, a U.S. Senate candidate who openly associated with white nationalists. In 2020, she chaired a group backing then-President Donald Trump called "Black Americans to Re-elect the President." When Sears considered a run for lieutenant governor, she called up Andrew Leppert, a Republican campaign operative who was working on Trump's unsuccessful attempts to challenge the results of the vote in Wisconsin. Leppert says he liked her odds44.
"If you assess where Republicans and how Republicans were successful in 2020, it was veterans, minorities, or females, and Winsome Sears is all three of those things," says Leppert, who went on to become an early campaign manager.
It was a message Sears repeatedly made herself in the GOP nominating fight. Republicans hadn't won a statewide election in Virginia since 2009 and Sears offered a fresh face without compromising on conservative credentials45.
Leppert took the now-famous photo of the lieutenant governor-elect holding her gun and peppered voting sites across Virginia with yard signs featuring the picture. "If you've seen one of those signs in person, one of them looks like three, and six looks like 15," Leppert says.
Sears' campaign ran into headwinds during the general election. The Hill reported that she said she would back hardline Texas-style abortion restrictions46 in Virginia, sparking an immediate47 outcry. Days later, she fired her campaign staff.
The problems didn't appear to affect Sears' performance at the ballot48 box, where she won a slightly higher percentage of votes than either Youngkin or Attorney General-elect Jason Miyares.
Sears says she can help win over conservative Black voters and chafes49 at President Joe Biden's remarks during the 2020 campaign saying Black voters who favored Trump "ain't Black."
"How dare you tell me that?" Sears says.
But Lamont Bagby, a Democrat who chairs Virginia's Legislative Black Caucus50, says it's still not clear what Sears' policies are or how they will help Black voters.
"Black folks aren't just voting for Democrats because they like the color blue. It's based upon the issues," he says.
Sears has been quiet on one key issue – she won't say whether she's vaccinated51 against COVID-19. But she says her main focus in office will be education by trying to add school vouchers52 and create charter schools. For Sears, education is the backbone53 of her optimism about the country's future.
"America is progressing," she says. "I'm proof." Sears has four years to make that case to Virginia voters.
1 lieutenant | |
n.陆军中尉,海军上尉;代理官员,副职官员 | |
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2 winsome | |
n.迷人的,漂亮的 | |
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3 abortion | |
n.流产,堕胎 | |
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4 racism | |
n.民族主义;种族歧视(意识) | |
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5 hurdle | |
n.跳栏,栏架;障碍,困难;vi.进行跨栏赛 | |
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6 marine | |
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵 | |
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7 corps | |
n.(通信等兵种的)部队;(同类作的)一组 | |
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8 banish | |
vt.放逐,驱逐;消除,排除 | |
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9 ministry | |
n.(政府的)部;牧师 | |
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10 trauma | |
n.外伤,精神创伤 | |
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11 mansion | |
n.大厦,大楼;宅第 | |
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12 unwilling | |
adj.不情愿的 | |
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13 vestiges | |
残余部分( vestige的名词复数 ); 遗迹; 痕迹; 毫不 | |
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14 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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15 uncommon | |
adj.罕见的,非凡的,不平常的 | |
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16 democrat | |
n.民主主义者,民主人士;民主党党员 | |
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17 democrats | |
n.民主主义者,民主人士( democrat的名词复数 ) | |
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18 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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19 embodies | |
v.表现( embody的第三人称单数 );象征;包括;包含 | |
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20 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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21 supremacy | |
n.至上;至高权力 | |
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22 antithesis | |
n.对立;相对 | |
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23 decency | |
n.体面,得体,合宜,正派,庄重 | |
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24 trump | |
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭 | |
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25 equity | |
n.公正,公平,(无固定利息的)股票 | |
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26 rhetoric | |
n.修辞学,浮夸之言语 | |
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27 harp | |
n.竖琴;天琴座 | |
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28 inaccurate | |
adj.错误的,不正确的,不准确的 | |
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29 winking | |
n.瞬眼,目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 );递眼色(表示友好或高兴等);(指光)闪烁;闪亮 | |
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30 chatter | |
vi./n.喋喋不休;短促尖叫;(牙齿)打战 | |
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31 unfamiliar | |
adj.陌生的,不熟悉的 | |
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32 reconstruction | |
n.重建,再现,复原 | |
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33 incumbent | |
adj.成为责任的,有义务的;现任的,在职的 | |
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34 legislative | |
n.立法机构,立法权;adj.立法的,有立法权的 | |
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35 blistering | |
adj.酷热的;猛烈的;使起疱的;可恶的v.起水疱;起气泡;使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡 | |
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36 lamented | |
adj.被哀悼的,令人遗憾的v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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38 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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39 amendment | |
n.改正,修正,改善,修正案 | |
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40 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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41 wimp | |
n.无用的人 | |
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42 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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43 collapsed | |
adj.倒塌的 | |
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44 odds | |
n.让步,机率,可能性,比率;胜败优劣之别 | |
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45 credentials | |
n.证明,资格,证明书,证件 | |
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46 restrictions | |
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则) | |
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47 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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48 ballot | |
n.(不记名)投票,投票总数,投票权;vi.投票 | |
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49 chafes | |
v.擦热(尤指皮肤)( chafe的第三人称单数 );擦痛;发怒;惹怒 | |
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50 caucus | |
n.秘密会议;干部会议;v.(参加)干部开会议 | |
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51 vaccinated | |
[医]已接种的,种痘的,接种过疫菌的 | |
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52 vouchers | |
n.凭证( voucher的名词复数 );证人;证件;收据 | |
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53 backbone | |
n.脊骨,脊柱,骨干;刚毅,骨气 | |
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