Raise your hand if you've ever heard a politician tell you not to vote before.
There probably aren't many hands in the air.
The leaders of West Virginia's political parties, with decades spent in politics, had never heard of such a thing.
But that's exactly what the presumed Republican nominee for president told a crowd of thousands inside the Charleston Civic Center Thursday night.
"What I want you to do is save your vote," Donald Trump told the cheering crowd. "You don't have to vote anymore, save your vote for the general election, OK? Forget this one, the primary's done."
It was not just a momentary off-the-cuff slip up. Trump circled back about 20 minutes later.
"The vote was supposed to be on Tuesday, but now I can say, stay home but get twice as many people in November, right?" he said. "Because we have to win, we have to win the general election."
Conrad Lucas, chairman of the state Republican Party, said he'd never heard such a remark from a candidate.
Neither had Belinda Biafore, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party.
"Tuesday's going to be boring, because none of the Republicans are going to vote," Biafore joked. "I never thought anything that he said would surprise me, but that actually shocked me, just shocked me, that you wouldn't want people involved in the process. I'm sure the rest of the folks down ballot didn't appreciate that comment."
A couple of hours after twice telling West Virginians not to vote, Trump reversed course on his Twitter account, writing: "Thank you West Virginia. Let's keep it going. Go out and vote on Tuesday - we will win big."
While Trump all but clinched the Republican nomination this week, there are still dozens of contested races to be decided in Tuesday's primary elections.
There is a contested Democratic primary for governor, auditor and secretary of state. There are contested primaries in both parties for a U.S. House seat in the 2nd Congressional District, representing Charleston. There are contested races across the state in the House of Delegates and the Senate. There are local school board races that are nonpartisan and, therefore, will decide the eventual office-holder - with no general election.
And, perhaps most importantly, there are judicial races.
"I think that Mr. Trump was focusing on . . . he's showing [that] his personal election is focused on defeating Hillary Clinton in the general election," Lucas said, trying to explain Trump's reasoning. "It's vitally important that folks vote and vote all the way to the end of the ballot on all races, particularly judicial."
Judicial races are, for the first time this year, nonpartisan, which means there is no general election vote - Tuesday's election will be decisive.
Judicial races also are on the very last page of a lengthy five-page Republican ballot.
That includes a seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court, which will give someone a spot on the bench for the next 12 years.
While it is officially nonpartisan, the Supreme Court race has a decidedly partisan bent to it. Perhaps the person who could be most harmed by Trump's voter discouragement is Beth Walker, the choice of establishment Republicans in the Supreme Court race.
Despite the race's nonpartisan moniker, the Republican State Leadership Committee, a national group, has spent more than $2 million on ads supporting Walker and attacking two of her opponents, Darrell McGraw and Bill Wooton.
Senate President Bill Cole, the Republican candidate for governor, wasted no time trying to counter Trump's remarks, sending out an email Friday morning asking supporters to "join me in voting for Beth Walker for Supreme Court."
Walker did not respond to an interview request.
Kent Gates, a spokesman for Walker and Cole, said he had never heard of a politician telling voters to stay home and said that he thinks Trump was trying to make the point that he had the presidential nomination wrapped up.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who also campaigned in West Virginia on Thursday, was not impressed by Trump's remarks.
"People fought and died to make sure that all of us have a right to determine the future of this country," Sanders told West Virginia Public Broadcasting. "I think that is an absurd remark and an insult to the people who put their lives on the line."
Marc Savitt is challenging incumbent Congressman Alex Mooney for the Republican nomination in West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District.
Savitt, who endorsed Trump in February, was sitting right behind the stage Thursday night, in sight of the television cameras. He said a friend watching at home told him about the shocked expression on his face when Trump told people not to vote.
"I don't know why he said that," Savitt said, emphasizing Trump's walk-back tweet from late last night. "It might've been something where it's already decided, so he meant you don't need to vote for the [Republican National Convention] delegates, not about the rest of the ballot."
Mooney was the co-chairman of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential campaign in West Virginia, but Cruz suspended his campaign earlier this week.
On Thursday night, just before the rally began, Mooney tweeted his support for Trump and said he would be speaking at the Trump rally.
He did not speak at the rally.
He did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
His tweet has since been deleted.
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.