Virginia, long seen as a critical state in American politics, has also been a barometer of the nation’s racial climate and is being closely watched to see what direction it takes in the way of social justice.

If she becomes governor, McClelland would be the second Black governor of VIrginia, following Doug Wilder, and the first Black woman ever voted into the job making history in the state as well as in the nation.

She spoke with BET.com about her plans to address social justice and equality, and also focus on answering the racial issues that have come out of the state over the past few years like the deadly protest incident in Charlottesville in 2017 and Black Virginia voters’ influence on electoral politics.

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BET.com: You wouldn’t be the first Black governor of Virginia, but you would be the first Black woman governor and the first Black woman to hold the position in the country.

McClelland: There's so many aspects of public safety, but the bottom line is just making sure we have healthy thriving communities and a lot of the civil unrest, whether it was then or now, is due to an inability to come to terms with the racial inequity and 400 years of trauma and the inability to address that and heal.