HARTS, W.Va. — Lincoln County native Zack Maynard says “there’s a story behind” his improbable election to the House of Delegates Tuesday.
You see, Maynard, 24, of Harts, is a Republican in Lincoln County, and he ended up leading the ticket in the 22nd Delegate District vote.
Maynard told MetroNews Friday that story began a year ago when he began knocking on doors and hanging out at gas stations meeting residents.
“I’ll shake your hand no matter who you are. I’ll stop you at the gas station. I didn’t care who it was or what they drove. I didn’t target any kind of audience I just talked to everybody and I think that’s why the results came out the way they did,” Maynard said.
What’s even more amazing is Maynard spent most of the last several weeks of the campaign with his very sick father in a Lexington, Kentucky hospital room.
The 22nd District is made up of parts of four counties. Maynard won Logan County, was strong in Lincoln and came in second in Putnam County. The totals put him on top with 5059. He’ll represent the district along with Democrat incumbent Del. Jeff Eldridge who finished second.
Maynard graduated from WVU Tech with a business management degree a few years ago. He came back home to Lincoln County and got an internship with a coal company but lost that position because of the steep downturn in coal. He then became a substitute teacher.
“That just shows you the struggle of my generation. In southern West Virginia we have to make due with what we got and right now there’s a lot of us that are trying to hold on to stay here,” Maynard said.
Donald Trump picked up more than 5,200 votes in Lincoln County, which Maynard admits helped him in his bid.
“Nobody expected Trump to do what he done and a lot of people didn’t expect me to do what I done but at the end of the day people got out, people wanted change,” Maynard said.
He believes voters in the southern coalfields are to the point where they want a representative more than a political party.
Maynard is concerned about infrastructure, education and the drug issue, he said.
“We have a drug epidemic that’s killing my generation and nobody wants to talk about it. We campaign on it every time but when we get up there it’s off the top of your head,” Maynard said.