Winsome Sears Wins Virginia Lt. Gov Speech Transcript

Winsome Sears: (00:31) All right. All right. All right. Settle down, settle down. Crowd: (00:33) Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome Sears: (00:50) I am at a loss for words for the first time in my life. You know- Crowd: (00:58) We love you! Winsome Sears: (01:01) I love you too. I am here. Crowd: (01:14) Way to go, Marine. Winsome Sears: (01:15) Yes. Marine Corps. Motivated. Dedicated. So I'm here are because of you. I'm here because you voted for me. I'm here because you put your trust in me. That's the only reason I'm here. Thank you. Thank you. Crowd: (01:35) We love you, Winsome. Winsome Sears: (01:41) Got my speech. I want to introduce to you my husband, Terrance. He's another Marine. My daughter, [Kacha 00:02:01]. And my other daughter, Janelle. Crowd: (02:06) Hoo rah! Winsome Sears: (02:11) I'm telling you that what you are looking at is the American dream. The American dream. When my father came to this country, August 11th of 1963, he came at the height of the Civil Rights Movement from Jamaica. He came and I said to him, "But it was such a bad time for us. Why did you come?" And he said, "Because America was where the jobs and the opportunities were." Winsome Sears: (02:53) And he only came with $1.75. $1.75. Took any job he could find, and he put himself through school and started his American dream. And now, he's comfortably retired. And then, he came and got me when I was six years old. And when I stepped on that Pan Am Boeing 737 and landed at JFK, I landed in a new world. And so let me tell you this. I am not even first generation American. When I joined the Marine Corps, I was still a Jamaican. But this country had done so much for me, I was willing, willing to die for this country. Winsome Sears: (04:03) USA! Crowd: (04:03) USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! Winsome Sears: (04:13) And so I say to you- Crowd: (04:14) Victory. Winsome Sears: (04:16) Victory, indeed. But I say to you, there are some who want to divide us and we must not let that happen. They would like us to believe we are back in 1963 when my father came. We can live where we want. We can eat where we want. We own the water fountains. We have had a Black president elected, not once, but twice. And here, I am living proof. Winsome Sears: (04:58) In case you haven't noticed, I am Black and I have been Black all my life. But that's not what this is about. Crowd: (05:22) Beautiful! Winsome Sears: (05:22) What we are going to do is we are going to now be about the business of the Commonwealth. We have things to tend to. We are going to fully fund our historically Black colleges and universities. You're going to hear from your Governor Elect Glenn Youngkin. And he's got a day one plan that I'm already tired about. Don't know how we're going to make it to day two, but he's going to make sure we keep more of our money in our pockets, because he's going to get rid of all kinds of taxes. We're going to have safer neighborhoods, safer communities, and our children are going to get a good education. Because education lifted my father out of poverty, education lifted me out of poverty, education will lift us all out of poverty because we must have marketable skills so that our children cannot just survive, but they will thrive, and they will create generational wealth. That's what this is about. Crowd: (06:53) We love you. Winsome Sears: (06:57) I'm going to finish up. Crowd: (06:58) We love you, Winsome! Winsome Sears: (06:59) We love you too. It's a historic night. Yes, it is. But I didn't run to make history. I just wanted to leave it better than I found it. And with your help, we're going to do that. We're going to have transparent government. And as I used to say as we were on the trail, "Hold on, Virginia, help is on the way. The cavalry has arrived." Thank you. God bless you. Winsome Sears: (07:40) And finally- Crowd: (07:49) Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome! Winsome Sears: (07:52) Want to thank my staff because I couldn't have done it without them. We were a ragtag bunch of people. We ran an impossible, improbable campaign against ... God was exactly with us. Otherwise, we would never have made it. And so I want to finish up by thanking you, Jesus. How sweet it is.