Girlfriend’s on-air killing drives anchorman into politics
BLACKSBURG, Va. — The tipping point for Chris Hurst came last fall while reporting on a shooting at a rail car factory. When the camera turned off, he wept.
Just more than a year earlier, the 29-year-old’s reporter girlfriend was gunned down while conducting an interview on live TV. Now, Hurst was using the same truck that Alison Parker had used the last day of her life to report live from the scene of another shooting.
Hurst realized he needed a drastic life change.
The former TV anchor is now running for political office, challenging a National Rifle Association-backed candidate for a competitive Virginia state House seat in a firearm friendly part of the state. Hurst sees it as a way to honour the memory of the woman he thought he’d marry and to give back to the community that helped him through his darkest days.