"[Hashmi] actually did surprisingly well, I would say, in Western Virginia, which I don't think a lot of people anticipated. But that also, frankly, given how close it was, I mean, that gave her a decent margin out of Western Virginia."
Does "Western Virginia" include Nelson County in the Blue Ridge Mountains? There's a fun story on the Virginia Press Room podcast on May 19, in the "insider's info" part of the show near the end, from Olivia Diaz of AP, about Hashmi campaigning in Nelson County and sharing her love of the Waltons TV show:
“My insider info is Senator Ghazala Hashmi said she moved to Virginia because she loved watching the Waltons growing up. I have some quotes. She said, I grew up in, quote, I grew up in Georgia watching the Waltons, and senators know my profound love of the Waltons. I quoted John Boy on the floor of the Senate. I went into literature as my field of profession, and I earned my degree in American literature because I had fallen desperately in love with the nerdy John Boy, who was a writer, end quote.”
I subsequently looked up the Waltons on Wikipedia after Hashmi's victory, and I must say, she really does her homework. First the entry explains who Hamner was: The show "was created by screenwriter / author Earl Hamner Jr., based on his 1961 book Spencer's Mountain." Then later on, it says, "The main story is set in Walton's Mountain, a fictional mountain community in the fictitious Jefferson County, Virginia. The stories are based upon events in Hamner's childhood home in Schuyler in Nelson County, Virginia."
"[Hashmi] actually did surprisingly well, I would say, in Western Virginia, which I don't think a lot of people anticipated. But that also, frankly, given how close it was, I mean, that gave her a decent margin out of Western Virginia."
Does "Western Virginia" include Nelson County in the Blue Ridge Mountains? There's a fun story on the Virginia Press Room podcast on May 19, in the "insider's info" part of the show near the end, from Olivia Diaz of AP, about Hashmi campaigning in Nelson County and sharing her love of the Waltons TV show:
“My insider info is Senator Ghazala Hashmi said she moved to Virginia because she loved watching the Waltons growing up. I have some quotes. She said, I grew up in, quote, I grew up in Georgia watching the Waltons, and senators know my profound love of the Waltons. I quoted John Boy on the floor of the Senate. I went into literature as my field of profession, and I earned my degree in American literature because I had fallen desperately in love with the nerdy John Boy, who was a writer, end quote.”
I subsequently looked up the Waltons on Wikipedia after Hashmi's victory, and I must say, she really does her homework. First the entry explains who Hamner was: The show "was created by screenwriter / author Earl Hamner Jr., based on his 1961 book Spencer's Mountain." Then later on, it says, "The main story is set in Walton's Mountain, a fictional mountain community in the fictitious Jefferson County, Virginia. The stories are based upon events in Hamner's childhood home in Schuyler in Nelson County, Virginia."