Blair Thornburgh – the granddaughter of Dick Thornburgh, the former Pennsylvania governor and U.S. attorney general – first viewed her future husband, Downingtown Mayor Josh Maxwell, as a potential muse for a novel she was writing, writes Tammy La Gorce for the New York Times.

The forthcoming novel, The King of Jerksville, is about a young slacker who inadvertently becomes mayor of a Pennsylvania town.

However, Thornburgh, an editor at Quirk Books in Philadelphia, quickly discovered that Maxwell was nothing like her protagonist.

“Ted Dunker is basically the most unlikely candidate to become mayor of his town,” she said of her character. “Not really driven, not very confident, your typical teenager.”

On the other hand, Maxwell, a West Chester University graduate, became Downingtown Mayor in 2009 at just 24 years of age. He won re-election in 2013 and 2017.

Despite what she called her “pedigree as a Pennsylvania Republican scion,” Thornburgh long shared the left-leaning views of Maxwell, a Democrat.

As their relationship grew, Maxwell once made Thornburgh a coffee table at Dane Decor, a furniture shop in Downingtown where he worked part time, for Valentine’s Day.

The two were recently married, and they held their wedding reception at that Dane Décor.

Click here to read more about Downingtown Mayor Josh Maxwell and his bride, Blair Thornburgh, in the New York Times.

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