Boyfriend of Reporter Murdered on Live TV Wins Statehouse Seat
Chris Hurst was dating Roanoke TV reporter Alison Parker when she was killed on camera.
One of the winners in Tuesday's off-year elections was the boyfriend of a Virginia news reporter who was murdered during a live broadcast in 2015.
Chris Hurst and Alison Parker were co-workers at Roanoke's WDBJ and also living together as a couple when a former reporter from the same station, who was fired two years earlier, opened fire on Parker and her cameraman, killing them both.
Hurst, a former WDBJ anchor, ran for Virginia's House of Delegates on a gun control platform that paid off Tuesday when he beat the NRA-backed Republican incumbent.
"It's a big night for me," the 30-year-old first-time politician said following his win. "But I think this is an amazing opportunity for the people of this district to be fully represented across the entire district. I think it's an unbelievable enormous opportunity, now for the entire Commonwealth with this movement that has been crystallized here in this race here in the New River Valley."
Hurst will now represent in Richmond the same community that was left shattered by the deaths of Parker and Ward on Aug. 26, 2015.
The gunman recorded the double homicide and posted it on his own social media, which he also posted to throughout an hours-long manhunt before he finally taking his own life.
Hurst's face was a common sight on national media following the incident, which he says catalyzed his desire to seek public office.
While the Democrat says he has "no intention of trying to ban or prohibit any type of class of weapon," he says he believes there are other ways to prevent the type of senseless gun violence that claimed the life of his girlfriend.
"There is work that we could do through a gun violence protective order to reasonably — for a set amount of time — remove a gun from a dangerous situation. Nobody just snaps. There's always something that is occurring — a pattern," he said.