Matt Carson
Encyclopedia
Matthew "Matt" Carson is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 from Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. Carson's recent works include The Attic, A Christmas Story and most recently On A Hill They Call Capital. In 2009 he ran as an independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 candidate for Virginia House of Delegates
Virginia House of Delegates elections, 2009
2009 Elections to the Virginia House of Delegates were held on November 3, 2009. Prior to the election, Republicans held 53 seats, Democrats held 43 seats, and Independents held 2 seats...

, 30th District seat, losing to the Republican incumbent.

Biography

Born in Warrenton, Virginia
Warrenton, Virginia
Warrenton is a town in Fauquier County, Virginia, United States. The population was 6,670 at the 2000 census, and 14,634 at the 2010 estimate. It is the county seat of Fauquier County. Public schools in the town include Fauquier High School, Warrenton Middle School, Taylor Middle School and two...

, Matt Carson is a graduate of Fauquier High School
Fauquier High School
Fauquier High School is a public secondary school in Warrenton, Virginia. The school is part of Fauquier County Public Schools and is located at 705 Waterloo Road. Curtis Grady was here-History:...

 and holds a degree in political science and history from West Virginia University
West Virginia University
West Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...

. As a student, he was the founder of the SRA (Student Rights Administration) in 1997, a group that gained national media attention by battling the then president of the University, David Hardesty, for his "dry fraternity" initiatives and for attempting to cut back on student tailgating at football games by instituting a "no keg" ruling. Carson was arrested by Morgantown
Morgantown, West Virginia
Morgantown is a city in Monongalia County, West Virginia. It is the county seat of Monongalia County. Placed along the banks of the Monongahela River, Morgantown is the largest city in North-Central West Virginia, and the base of the Morgantown metropolitan area...

 police for some of his on-campus antics.

Carson was also a writer for The Daily Athenaeum at the time, the WVU student newspaper, and gained attention for his often hilarious pro-party rants and for citing his determination at restoring WVU as the "number one party school in the nation" as ranked by Playboy Magazine.

After graduating, he worked at Oasis Winery with owner Tareq Salahi
Tareq Salahi
Tareq Dirgham Salahi is a former American vintner and former public official. He and his wife, Michaele, gained national attention in November 2009 by allegedly crashing a White House state dinner in honor of India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...

 in an effort to learn the wine business. Carson was originally slated to write the Salahi story involving the winery family feud, the Virginia polo murder, and the rise of the Virginia wine business to be titled Wine, War, & Roses. The Real Housewives of Washington, D.C.
The Real Housewives of Washington, D.C.
The Real Housewives of D.C. is an American reality television program that debuted on the Bravo network Thursday, August 5, 2010. It was the network's fifth installation of The Real Housewives of... series, following The Real Housewives of Orange County, New York City, Atlanta, and New Jersey.Bravo...

 filmed a book meeting at Carson's Virginia home with the Salahis one week prior to the alleged White House Gatecrashing incident
2009 U.S. state dinner security breaches
On November 24, 2009, Michaele and Tareq Salahi , a married couple from Virginia, and Carlos Allen , attended a White House state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, allegedly without being invited guests. The Salahis and Allen arrived separately and did not appear to have colluded in...

. Soon after the White House incident Carson walked away from the project.

After Oasis, he founded SiteWhirks Inc., a multiple-awarded Web development
Web development
Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet or an intranet . This can include web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development...

 company in Warrenton
Warrenton
-United States:*Warrenton, Georgia*Warrenton, Indiana *Warrenton, Missouri*Warrenton, North Carolina*Warrenton, Oregon*Warrenton, Texas*Warrenton, Virginia...

 and co-founded Bigteams
Bigteams
develops athletic websites for high schools in both the United States and Canada. These websites allow coaches and athletic directors to update sports related content for the public such as rosters, news, photos, and schedules. Each BigTeams website is branded for the particular school including...

. He has a wife and 3-year-old daughter.

Carson was also featured in the infamous The Men of Rappahannock County partially nude calendar that gained national attention as a fundraiser for a local high school track field. He appeared in the calendar along with Ben L. Jones, aka, Cooter from the Dukes of Hazzard
Dukes of Hazzard
The Dukes of Hazzard is an American television series that aired on the CBS television network from 1979 to 1985.The series was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners, which was also created by Gy Waldron and had many identical or similar character names and concepts.- Overview :The Dukes of Hazzard...

 television show.

On A Hill They Call Capital

The second literary work of Matt Carson, On A Hill They Call Capital: A Revolution Is Coming‎, published on July 4, 2007, is the story of 8 Virginians in their late twenties who mount a revolution against the U.S. Federal Government out of frustration with the Patriot Act. These 8 Virginians call themselves the Grandsons of Liberty after the Sons of Liberty
Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty were a political group made up of American patriots that originated in the pre-independence North American British colonies. The group was formed to protect the rights of the colonists from the usurpations by the British government after 1766...

.

The book has received praise from such sources as The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

 journalist Joel Garreau
Joel Garreau
Joel Garreau is an American journalist, scholar and author of Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies – And What It Means to Be Human, Edge City: Life on the New Frontier and The Nine Nations of North America.In 2010, Garreau became the Lincoln Professor of Law,...

 and Julie Failla Earhart of Armchair Interviews.
The cast of characters and unique literary style blur the lines between fiction and non-fiction created a recurring discussion theme among critics and readers about whether the book is purely a work of fiction or a warning of a pending revolution. The book has been featured on Military Times
Military Times
Military Times is a monthly military history magazine, published by Current Publishing and the Chelsea Magazine Company.- Overview :Military Times is edited by Dr Neil Faulkner, with George Clode, and published by Luke Bilton. The magazine covers all aspects of military history, from battles of...

' website for supposedly containing hidden codes and foreshadowing specific real events.

A quote, "The beauty of the second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it", attributed in the book by Matt Carson to Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

, has been considered false, not found prior to 2007.

2009 Virginia elections candidacy

Matt Carson ran as an independent against the Republican incumbent Ed Scott in November’s race for the 30th District
Virginia House of Delegates elections, 2009
2009 Elections to the Virginia House of Delegates were held on November 3, 2009. Prior to the election, Republicans held 53 seats, Democrats held 43 seats, and Independents held 2 seats...

 seat in the Virginia House of Delegates
Virginia House of Delegates
The Virginia House of Delegates is the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbered years. The House is presided over by the Speaker of the House, who is elected from among the...

. In his first campaign for public office he gained 25% of the vote, losing to the incumbent. The main points of his political campaign were the support for a Patriot Act free state, fiscal responsibility at state level, protection of inalienable rights of individuals, and an environmentally friendly
Environmentally friendly
Environmentally friendly are terms used to refer to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies claimed to inflict minimal or no harm on the environment....

approach.
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