Virginia Lt. Governor-elect Winsome Sears challenged MSNBC host Joy Reid for an invite on the left-leaning network after Reid claimed the GOP is “dangerous” for stoking “white nationalism.”
Sears is Jamaican, a former Marine, and, after Tuesday, is the first woman of color elected to statewide office in Virginia. She defeated Democrat Hala Ayala, a member of the state’s House of Delegates, in a GOP sweep of state offices that brought Republicans into the governorship and office of state attorney general, as well.
Sears appeared on Fox News on Wednesday to react to a clip of Reid claiming that Republicans are “dangerous to our national security” for “stoking that kind of soft white nationalism [that] eventually leads to the hardcore stuff.”
“I wish Joy Reid would invite me on her show. Let’s see if she’s woman enough to do that. I’d go in a heartbeat and we’d have a real discussion without Joy speaking about me behind my back, if you will,” Sears responded. “I mean, Joy, come on. Get your facts straight and then come talk to me.”
Sears also put out a challenge to former ESPN anchor Jemele Hill to come on MSNBC as well for a “panel discussion.” Hill reacted to Republicans’ winning in Virginia by blaming “white supremacy.”
“It’s not the messaging, folks. This country simply loves white supremacy,” Hill tweeted on Wednesday.
While we're at it, let's make it a panel and invite @jemelehill to join in some thoughtful dialogue! https://t.co/Fs5t3uGaxX
— Team Winsome Sears (@WinWithWinsome) November 3, 2021
Republicans rode a wave of parental outrage to victory in Virginia after school board meetings across the state became battlegrounds between parents and school administrators over the inclusion of Critical Race Theory-inspired curriculum in schools. Parents also pushed back against progressive policies such as forced masking of students.
In Loudoun County, Virginia, the battle between parents and school administrators exploded after a parent accused the public school system of covering up his daughter’s alleged rape by a boy in a skirt, as The Daily Wire first reported.
Sears, who will serve under Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin, laid out some of the priorities of their administration in a victory address on Tuesday evening.
“I am at a loss for words for the first time in my life,” Sears said. “So, I’m here 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.”
“I say to you, there are some who want to divide us and we must not let that happen,” she said. “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. 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, what we are going to do is we are going to now be about the business of the Commonwealth,” she continued. “We have things to tend to, we are going to fully fund our historically black colleges and universities. You’re gonna hear from your governor-elect Glenn Youngkin. And he’s got a day one plan that I’m already tired about, I don’t know how we’re gonna 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 gonna 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 can not just survive, but they will thrive, and they will create generational wealth. That’s what this is about.”