Winsome Earle-Sears has already made history. Can she do it again?

Mel Leonor Barclay

Politics Reporter

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Virginia will elect its first woman governor Tuesday, picking a winner in a rare two-woman contest between former Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. Even rarer is Earle-Sears’ ascent to the nomination: Nationwide, only six Black Republican women have run for governor since 2000, and Earle-Sears is the first one to win the party’s nomination.

That’s according to an analysis by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. The milestone comes seven years after Stacey Abrams became the first Black woman gubernatorial nominee for a major party in U.S. history.

Earle-Sears, who is also an immigrant, has marked the historic nature of her campaign by attacki