But to the extent that is true, it’s because of the preponderance of American media, and even to the amount of times those specific states and their shapes come up in American media. There is nothing more special about the shape of Texas than about those of Oklahoma or Guanajuato, but it’s on more media more often.
That’s not (the location of) New England, that’s the western shore of the Chesapeake.
Virginia’s actual tourism slogan (you can even get free bumper stickers from state offices) is “Virginia is for lovers.” This has resulted in the perennial Mid-Atlantic East Coast tourism joke/mock slogan:
Virginia may be for lovers, but in Pennsylvania they have
Virginia and Pennsylvania are close enough that many people could really divert from one state to the other upon discovering something interesting in the other one.