A Tale of Two Black Women: Legacy Media Ignores Conservative Winsome Earle-Sears but Promotes Liberal Stacey Abrams

Liberal media bias and hypocrisy are on full display in Virginia.

Winsome Earle-Sears, the current lieutenant governor of Virginia, is the Republican nominee for governor. It’s impossible to find a starker comparison and contrast between the media and cultural “elites”’ treatment of Earle-Sears and Stacey Abrams, who shares key similarities with Earle-Sears. 

Both are black women from battleground states (Abrams from Georgia), who earned their respective party’s nomination for governor in America’s South. The difference: Abrams is a Democrat, and thus worthy of expansive, fawning media coverage—though Abrams checks fewer of the Left’s prized identity boxes than Earle-Sears, a Jamaican immigrant.

The Left claims to lionize and promote black women and immigrants—but only when they fall in line with leftist ideology. 

Abrams was feted on the cover of Time magazine for its issue on “The American South” with the headline of “The Unlikely Rise of Stacey Abrams.” This came in July 2018, while Abrams ran for governor—the first time. She lost twice, blowing millions of dollars in the process. To this day, Abrams still doesn’t concede her first loss to Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018, before losing to him again in a 2022 rematch by an even wider margin.

In contrast to Earle-Sears, Abrams has never been a lieutenant governor or held statewide elected office (she was a representative in the state House, where she served as minority leader), lost a governors race twice, and her organization was fined $300,000 for campaign finance law violations—the largest in Georgia’s history.

Earle-Sears, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who rose from working-class roots, is a historic figure: a black woman, an immigrant, and the first woman of any race to hold this office in the former capital of the Confederacy.

Earle-Sears is the first woman of color to hold statewide office in Virginia, and in November 2001, Earle-Sears toppled 20-year Democrat incumbent Billy Robinson for the 90th district seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates, making her the first black female Republican, first female veteran, and first naturalized citizen to serve in that elected body.

A spokeswoman for Time did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal about whether it would run a cover of Earle-Sears with similar glowing language or any response to conservatives believing Time magazine has not covered Earle-Sears with the same level of fairness—or dare we say, equity—as Abrams.

Time is far from the only media outlet to largely or completely ignore Earle-Sears and boost Abrams, who also landed the cover of Variety, as well as New York Magazine’s The Cut, along with covers of Newsweek, Essence Magazine, and Marie Claire. Abrams spent millions of dollars losing the first time to Kemp, yet she was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey for both her candidacies.

People magazine ran a hagiographic profile about Abrams’ Essence magazine cover and gave yet more positive coverage for Abrams’ eight romance novels and the political thriller she’s authored, as Abrams cashes in on her political celebrity for her own personal gain.

Abrams admitted during her 2018 run that she owed more than $50,000 to the IRS in unpaid taxes—hypocrisy for someone whose ideology badgers honest business leaders to pay their “fair share” in taxes. Abrams also said she owed more than $170,000 in credit card and student loan debt.

Yet after her first governor bid, Abrams exploited her public service very quickly to pivot and report a net worth of nearly $3.2 million during her second gubernatorial run just four years later. In her financial disclosure for lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears reported a net worth of less than $300,000. Isn’t the Left supposed to favor people of more modest means?

Meanwhile, Earle-Sears’ opponent, Abigail Spanberger, a white Democrat, is campaigning with former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam—another white Democrat who faced calls to resign after a medical school yearbook showed him smiling while wearing blackface and standing next to a hooded person dressed in a white Ku Klux Klan robe.

Blackface is deemed racist by many black Americans. Yet the legacy media—is silent about this double standard.

Despite media bias against Earle-Sears, Nick Minock, reporter for WJLA, the D.C.-area ABC affiliate, noted Earle-Sears has narrowed the gap with Spanberger. Roanoke College polling now shows Spanberger leading by seven points. In May, Spanberger was leading by 17 points.

The latest poll was conducted Aug. 11-15 and could indicate Earle-Sears’ leadership shake-up is working. Last month, the Earle-Sears campaign removed its former campaign manager, Will Archer, from the top role and replaced him with Corey Barsky.

Earle-Sears is an inspiring historical figure who spent her younger life as a Democrat and switched sides after realizing the Left did not represent her values. It’s a shame the national media ignores this powerful, freethinking black woman because she doesn’t fit their mold.

Carrie Sheffield is the author of “Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness.”

Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal – By Carrie Sheffield

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.