Former Virginia Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, who also previously served in the Virginia House of Delegates, has launched a crusade against same-sex marriage and women’s reproductive rights. The literal “holy war” is called the “Life and Marriage Tour.”
Her goal is to convince voters in the Old Dominion state to vote down two proposed amendments to the state’s constitution.
The “Right to Reproductive Freedom” would amend the state’s constitution to “protect the freedom to make personal decisions about prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion, miscarriage management and fertility care.” It would also protect healthcare workers involved in such procedures.
The “Remove Constitutional Same-Sex Marriage Ban Amendment” would do just that — remove a provision that states marriage is between one man and one woman.
Earle-Sears’ campaign to defeat both questions was launched with an email to her past supporters.
The Jamaican-born Republican politician and businesswoman immigrated to the U.S. in 1970. She served in the Marine Corps for three years and entered politics in 2004, running for the state’s third congressional district and losing to the Democratic incumbent. In 2018, she ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate.
In 2021, she was elected as the lieutenant governor (the first woman to hold that office) and the first Black woman and female veteran to hold statewide office in Virginia.
Earle-Sears, educated at Tidewater Community College and Old Dominion University, also earned a master’s degree in organizational leadership from the late Pat Robertson’s Regent University.
According to a 2022 article on the Assemblies of God (AOG) website, Earle-Sears attends an AOG church in Winchester, VA, and credits her faith for sustaining her in several crises, including the death of her daughter and two granddaughters in an auto accident.
Also in 2022, she delivered a morning convocation address at the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. In that speech, she hinted at the underlying religious beliefs behind her latest political efforts.
“These bodies of ours, they don’t even belong to us,” she said. “We are living in a rental acting like we own it.”
The role of her evangelical and Pentecostal faith in her life and politics is manifest in her 2023 memoir, “How Sweet It Is: Defending the American Dream,” which was praised by former vice president and outspoken evangelical Christian, Mike Pence.
In her 2025 gubernatorial campaign, Earle-Sears showed her anti-transgender commitments. Referring to her Democratic opposition, she said her opponent wanted “to allow men in girls’ sports, bathrooms and locker rooms.”
In a televised debate during that campaign, she also declared that an employer firing someone simply because they were gay would not be an act of discrimination.
She is on record as opposing allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.
The former lieutenant governor will be visiting local community groups and churches across Virginia as a part of her “Life and Marriage Tour” and meeting with supporters. How the tour is being funded has not been revealed.
This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.
