Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, who last year announced her candidacy to succeed Governor Glenn Youngkin, said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump won her support for the second time with his response to the assassination attempt he survived in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Earle-Sears made the remarks during an appearance on “The John Fredericks Show,” telling The Virginia Star publisher John Fredericks that even though she urged Republicans to move past Trump following the president’s contest of the 2020 election results, she was moved by his profession of faith following the assassination attempt.
“I am clearly pro-Trump, and in fact, I’ve always been pro-Trump prior to that,” said Earle-Sears, referring to her 2022 interview with former Fox News host Neil Cavuto. “I voted for him in 2016; people said he was of a certain way because he’s from New York, but I was raised in New York. I’m used to seeing people talk that way; I used to talk that way. Not a problem.”
Earle-Sears said that she continued to support Trump through the 2020 election, telling Fredericks that she “lost family and friends” in the black community due to her support.
“Then came that election, and well, he started saying some things. Always remember that I am a Christian first, and a Republican second, always. And he had just said some thing, and you heard, even during my talk with Neil, where I talked about all the good things he had done,” said Earle-Sears. “I heard, and I said, you know, maybe we need to move on.”
Though Earle-Sears was reticent to endorse Trump, even after he became the Republican nominee last year, she said that Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Wisconsin, which was the president’s first public appearance after surviving the assassination attempt, changed her mind.
Trump referenced his faith during his July 19 speech at the RNC, stating, “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God. And watching the reports over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment. Probably was.”
He similarly said last month during his second inaugural address, “I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
Earle-Sears told Fredericks that she became convinced only Trump could repeat the success seen during his first term, and that his statements about faith convinced her of the president’s moral character.
“I just thought, yeah, but I want to hear that he has changed. I just want to hear on a moral level, that’s what I was looking for on a moral level, that’s what I was looking for as a Christian, I wanted to hear that from a moral standpoint,” said Earle-Sears. “And then I heard it. I heard him say, after he was shot, after he was shot, I heard him say, ‘You know, God has saved my life, and He has saved my life for a purpose, and I am going to live for Him, and I humbly ask for your vote.'”
The gubernatorial candidate, who said she was sick and could not attend the RNC in person, said she celebrated Trump’s speech while watching it from Virginia.
“After that, we were good,” Earle-Sears told Fredericks. Referencing Trump’s faith and track record from his first term, she added, “And that’s why he won by the way.”
Watch Earle-Sears’ full appearance on “The John Fredericks Show”:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Virginia Capitol” by AlbertHerring. CC BY-SA 2.0.
