Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears has faced challenges in her campaign for governor, stemming from comments she made about Donald Trump two years ago, when she referred to him as a liability to the Republican Party. Trump’s most ardent supporters have held her accountable for those words and have criticized her campaign at every opportunity.
This week, however, it appears that Trump supporters and Sears are mending fences and moving forward.
Conservative talk show host John Fredericks, one of the most vocal critics of Sears from the MAGA crowd, endorsed her on his radio show.
“Our relationship went south when you appeared on Neil Cavuto on Fox Business, or Fox News, whatever it was, and basically said Trump was done and we needed to move on,” Fredericks said. “As you know, I’ve been a Trump supporter forever. I stand by my guy now. He’s doing a tremendous job, but this has hurt your campaign and authenticity with the MAGA base, many of which are tuned in to me right now in Virginia.”
The comments Fredericks referenced occurred during an appearance on Fox News after Democrats overperformed in the 2022 congressional elections.
“When we look at the mission, and as a Marine, we’re looking at the mission, and you know, the voters have spoken, and they have said that they want a different leader,” Sears said on Fox in 2022. “And a true leader understands when they have become a liability, a true leader understands that it’s time to step off the stage. And the voters have given us that very clear message. A house divided against itself cannot stand, and indeed, that’s where we are today.”
Fast forward to 2024, and MAGA Nation had not forgotten those words from Sears.
“When the chips were down, and it mattered, Winsome Sears came out publicly as an avowed never-Trumper, said he couldn’t win, and said he would be a disaster as a candidate,” Fredericks said in an interview with Virginia Scope in August. “Now, all of a sudden, when she wants to run for governor and understands that without MAGA behind her, there’s no way she’s going to get the nomination, let alone have any chance of beating Spanberger, now all of a sudden she is for Trump. Welcome aboard. Great to have you for this campaign. Hope you can carry Virginia. MAGA voters have a long memory, and you are the last person we vote for in the gubernatorial nomination.”
After not publicly addressing the pushback from Fredericks, Sears is explaining now how she decided to support Trump.
She said her opinion changed after hearing his speech at the Republican National Convention last summer.
“I wanted to hear that he has changed,” she said Wednesday, describing her thought process ahead of the convention. “I just wanted to hear, on a moral level, that that’s what I was looking for as a Christian. I wanted to hear that from a moral standpoint. And then I heard it. I heard him say, after he was shot, ‘God has saved my life, and he has saved my life for a purpose, and I am going to live for him. And I humbly ask for your vote.’ I was like, ‘yes, he’s back.’ And so after that, we were good.”
Trump eventually won the Republican nomination for president in 2024. The party aligned behind him and pushed back against Republicans who didn’t. The candidates he backed in primaries across the country won, including state Sen. John McGuire who successfully primary Rep. Bob Good in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District.
Sears, however, is not facing any primary opponents at this time, so the MAGA base faces a question: support her despite her comments — or don’t, and potentially benefit Democrats and their likely nominee, former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger.
It looks like they are choosing the former.
“You now have my full support running for governor,” Fredericks said Wednesday. “Because the alternative is basically a communist in disguise.”
He believes that all of Trump’s supporters will eventually rally behind Sears.
“John Fredericks and Winsome Sears, after all this, can make up and reconcile,” he said. “And now I am 100% behind your campaign, and I did that in a weekend. If we can do it, MAGA can do it.”
According to Richard Meagher, a political science professor at Randolph Macon College, Sears needs the support of Trump’s most loyal supporters to win in November.
“Winsome Sears simply can’t win without the MAGA base of the Republican Party in Virginia – and she knows it,” he said. “She’s spent the last two years or so walking back the criticism of Trump she offered in late 2022.”
Meagher noted that the criticism of Trump made Sears vulnerable to a primary opponent. However, without anyone challenging her for the nomination, he believes her comments in the past will likely not have any long-term impact on the campaign.
“It was partially that criticism that made her seem vulnerable to a primary challenge from folks like Jason Miyares,” he said. “The fact that Miyares has now cleared the way for Sears to win the GOP nomination for governor, as well as mending fences with important MAGA figures like Fredericks, suggests that she’s not going to suffer any lasting damage among that base.”