Mary Ann Claytor never campaigned in Boone County, but she received three times as many votes as her closest competitor in that county during this year's Democratic primary for West Virginia state auditor.
"There were so many counties I didn't get to that I wanted to get to," Claytor said. "I was feeling bad that probably the people thought I didn't care about them, but I did."
Those missed campaign stops didn't seem to matter to West Virginia voters last week.
Claytor, a St. Albans resident who had never before run for political office, achieved one of the biggest surprises of Tuesday's election. She won the Democratic primary for state auditor by nearly 20,000 votes, sweeping every county in West Virginia's southern coalfields.
Second-place finisher Jason Pizatella, the favorite going into the race, had the support of a "who's who" of West Virginia Democrats: outgoing State Auditor Glen Gainer, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and Treasurer John Perdue. Robin Righter, a former Auditor's Office employee, finished third but picked up more votes than expected.
"The object was just to not get slaughtered," Claytor said. "We didn't know it would turn out this well."
Claytor didn't even watch the election results Tuesday. She was helping to care for her son at the hospital.
"I got text messages that [Pizatella] was beating me, but then they texted me that I might actually pull this off," Claytor said.
By the end of the night, she had captured 44 percent of the vote to Pizatella's 34 percent and Righter's 22 percent.
She did so, despite raising and spending only about $10,000 during the campaign - a paltry amount for a statewide race in West Virginia. Most of the campaign spending money came out of Claytor's own pocket, she said.
Pizatella raised nearly $50,000, according to his campaign finance reports.
"Everyone kept telling me, 'You'd make a great auditor, but you don't have the money,'" Claytor said last week, recalling comments she received before deciding to enter the race. "I said, 'Well, I have the qualifications, and I have the experience.'"
Claytor worked at the Auditor's Office for 20 years, conducting financial and compliance audits on local government offices. She left Gainer's office in 2014 to care for her son and start a consulting business.
"During the campaign, I just kept pushing 'experience, experience, experience,'" Claytor said. "State auditor is an accounting position. The right skills do matter."
Claytor's sweep of Southern West Virginia came as a surprise to Pizatella, who had campaigned in the region.
"We felt good before the vote totals came in from Mercer, McDowell, Boone, Lincoln and Logan counties," Pizatella said. "I was losing them two to one, and I knew it was over.
"I had felt good about the race, but I came up short, and it just wasn't my night."
One possible boost to Claytor's campaign: She was the only candidate who criticized the state's switch to a new payroll system.
After a change to a 26-week pay-period system, many state workers now receive their paychecks every two weeks, instead of twice a month. Some state employees allege they're being shortchanged financially under the new payroll system. In a video on Claytor's website, she asserts that state workers are losing $100 on average per pay period - a claim Gainer's office and other state officials have refuted.
Claytor also seemed to benefit by being from Kanawha County, the state's most populus county, which she won handily.
Pizatella has lived in Charleston for years while working at the state Capitol for the Tomblin administration, but he's a Fairmont native and still registered to vote in Marion County. Thus, Tuesday's ballot listed him as a candidate from Fairmont.
Righter, who lives in Harrison County, won her home county and two neighboring counties, sucking votes away from Pizatella, who expected to dominate the north-central part of the state.
Claytor's campaign aired television ads in North Central West Virginia - her only TV ads anywhere in the state - but didn't win any counties in the region.
Her platform included a promise to "clean house."
"It's about cleaning up the mess of government, not about gutting the Auditor's Office," Claytor said. "I want the employees to feel safe and secure about their jobs. I'm not vindictive."
The state auditor serves as West Virginia's official bookkeeper. Gainer served nearly 25 years as auditor before deciding not to seek re-election. His new job as president and CEO of the National White Collar Crime Center in Richmond, Virginia, starts Monday.
Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper, a Pizatella supporter, said the presumed Democratic frontrunner to replace Gainer might have set his sights prematurely on the November election and Republican candidate for auditor, Rep. John "J.B." McCuskey, R-Kanawha. McCuskey was unopposed in Tuesday's primary.
"Everyone thought Jason was a shoe-in," Carper said. "I was totally astounded by that result."
Claytor would have to overcome huge odds to defeat McCuskey, who already has raised $68,000 in campaign contributions. But Claytor embraces the role of underdog.
"We can't let money control our politics," she said. "If we're going to make a difference, we can't let people buy our elections. We can only do that through the power of word, and that's what we've done throughout our campaign."
Reach Eric Eyre at ericeyre@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4869 or follow @ericeyre on Twitter.