Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears recently delivered the keynote speech Saturday at the Forsyth County Republican Party’s fundraising event at the Legacy Stable and Events in southeastern Winston-Salem, where she encouraged Republican candidates running for public offices in the November elections to campaign for minority voters.
“It can be done,” Sears said about a GOP effort to attract Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans to vote for Republican candidates. “It will be done, and you are the ones to do it.”
According to the Winston-Salem Journal, during her 40-minute speech, with more than 200 people, including Republican elected officials, candidates and GOP officials in attendance, Sears told the audience how she won a close election for the lieutenant governor’s job in Virginia. She also spoke about her background and her support for gun rights, school choice and conservative solutions to social problems that plague society.
“It was hard,” Sears said of her campaign. “We didn’t have any money. But we kept going. And the Democrats kept making silly mistakes.”
Sears said she managed to receive enough support from Democratic voters to win. Her victory demonstrates that Republicans should and must grow their party in part by attracting minorities to support their candidates, Sears said.
“The Republican Party is a business,” Sears said. “And a business needs new customers.”
Sears urged Republican candidates to advertise their candidacies in minority-owned newspapers and on minority-oriented radio stations as well as broadcast their political ads during TV programs that Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans are watching.
“We’ve got elections coming up, and we have to remember that voters need to hear from both sides,” Sears said. “We must not take any vote for granted, and we must not assume when it comes to minorities that they are not willing to hear our message.
“I think we have a message of hope and hope for our children, and we want our children to thrive.”
Many prominent elected officials attended the event, including U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, R-13th, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, State Sen. Joyce Krawiec, R-Forsyth, State Rep. Jeff Zenger, R-Forsyth, and Republican State Treasurer Dale Folwell.
After her speech, Robert Clark, a Republican member of the Winston-Salem City Council, described Sears as a rising star among Republican elected officials.
Yesli Vega, a Hispanic and newly elected Republican nominee, who was elected to represent Virginia’s 7th Congressional District against longtime democratic representative Abigail Spanberger, recently expressed a similar sentiment, believing that Hispanic voters are “frightened” by the direction America is taking under their control. Describing Hispanics, Vega said, “We are naturally folks that believe in conservative principles, and it’s now or never.
“WE’RE NOT JUST A GROUP THAT CARES ABOUT IMMIGRATION,” SHE ADDED. “WE CARE ABOUT EDUCATION, WE CARE ABOUT THE SAFETY OF OUR COMMUNITIES, WE CARE ABOUT JOBS, THE COST OF LIVING. AND WE CERTAINLY CARE ABOUT ENSURING THAT AMERICA CONTINUES TO BE THE AMERICA THAT THEY KNOW AND LOVE.”
By reaching out to the community that as been ignored by democrats, and has been larging losing favor with them, Vega is already doing what Sear is advising others do, and seems primed to usher in a new wave for red in Virginia.