LOGAN, W.Va. — Richard Ojeda has become one of the stars of the 2018 midterms.

First, the national media latched on to this Trump-voting Democrat, and now the national party is behind him too. A recent independent poll found him ahead here in southern West Virginia’s coal-mining 3rd District that President Donald Trump carried by nearly 50 points in 2016.

But it wasn’t always this way.

“There was a time when we were laughed at — this time last year — by everyone,” said the campaign’s communications director, Madalin Sammons.

It’s people like Sammons, a 25-year-old single mom, who helped get Ojeda this far. Or campaign manager David Graham, who, up until April, was driving a tractor trailer and managing Ojeda’s campaign from the road.