Chris Hurst defeated NRA candidate and three-time incumbent Joseph Yost to win a long-shot race in the Virginia House of Delegates on Tuesday.
Hurst, 30, a former television journalist, lost his girlfriend, Alison Parker, when she was shot and killed with her cameraman during a live morning broadcast in 2015, a gun violence incident he frequently addressed on the campaign trail, The Roanoke Times reported.
Parker's father, Andy Parker, who has been a critic of the National Rifle Association since his daughter's death, attended Hurst's election watch party, the Times wrote.
"I know that Alison is with us and she's smiling," Andy Parker told the newspaper. "I'm so proud of Chris and all that he's done with this campaign."
Yost had an A-rating from the NRA, The Guardian reported. The NRA first endorsed Yost in 2011 when he defeated Democrat Don Langrehr for the House seat vacated by Democrat Jim Shuler, The Roanoke Times noted.
The race drew international attention and big money with both candidates raising more than a million dollars combined, according to WSLS-TV.
"Yeah, it's a big night for me, but I think this is an amazing opportunity for the people of this district to be fully represented across the entire district," Hurst told WDBJ-TV, where he worked as an anchor before Parker's death.
"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. Now the possibilities are unlimited and it's time to identify what the common priorities really, truly are with this new dynamic, politically, now in the commonwealth, and then go achieve results that actually give tangible, positive benefits to people's lives," he continued.
Hurst said he favored targeted policies designed to keep guns out of the hands of people at moments when they are most at risk of violence and a "gun violence restraining order" as a way for police or family members to ask a judge for a temporary confiscation of guns from someone who seems to be heading toward violence, The Guardian reported.
"What I care about most is trying to reduce the number of people who die with a gun, whether it’s homicide or suicide," Hurst told The Guardian. "The last thing I would want to do is to try to change someone's culture or their way of life. A gun violence protection order – we could build a consensus around it. It would be effective. It would work."
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