Marie March, as expected, took the top spot in the “firehouse primary” for the GOP nomination for the 7th District House of Delegates seat left open by the retirement of Nick Rush.

March’s win of the Republican primary assures a win in November in the solid-red district where anyone sporting the political flag of a tottering elephant wins automatically.

“I’m so excited. This is such a huge win,” March told Yann Ranavo at The Roanoke Times. “It’s a win for the rural county voters. They really came out en masse to support me.”

Perhaps it is fitting that the owner Fatback Soul Shack and Due South BBQ restaurants in Virginia’s largest town needed the “rural” vote of Floyd and Pulaski counties since she lost in the county where she makes money. Floyd and Pulaski delivered 1,082 votes for her, which outnumbered 859 total votes cast in Montgomery, where Sherri Blevins won the majority.

I once noted that an orangutan could win an election in Floyd County if he or she ran as a Republican. Voters here have given large majorities to Muslim-hating Virgil Goode, racist George Allen along homophobic and and birther conspiracist Corey Stewart, who also called far-right-wing commentator and white supremacist Paul Nehlin one of his “personal heroes.”

In a photo-op at the Virginia State Capitol in February 2018, Stewart called Republicans “flaccid” and told The Richmond Times-Dispatch “I feel sorry for their wives.”

So a win by a Republican like Marie March is not unique. It’s politics as usual by the local GOP.

“I ride horses, not fences!  You won’t get a wishy-washy, fence-ridin’, yellow-bellied politician here,” March claims on her website. “I’m an unashamed Christian, small business owner, proven job creator, rock-solid conservative, and Trump Republican.”

Most of the Republicans I worked with as an operative for the national party in Washington in the 1980s, say the term “Trump Republican” is a contradiction in terms. Most of the conservative Republicans who worked for Ronald Reagan back then have left the party in disgust and worked against him in the 2000 election, the race where voters, not demagogues, determined the outcome.

A verse of songwriter Kris Kristofferson refers to “a walking contradiction; partly-truth, partly-fiction.” Today, the songwriter today says Trump is a “never truth, always fiction.” Trump is a rabid racist, cited often by the government for racial discrimination in his housing projects, and who openly welcomed support from white supremacists and outright bigots.

Walking contradiction? Kind of like a delegate candidate who supports a racist ex-president yet owns a restaurant based on traditional African-American cuisine.

(Edited to remove what my wife thought was a “cheap shot.” She was right. My apologies.)