Western Virginia should be an easy win for Ed Gillespie, the Republican nominee for governor. It is mostly white and firmly conservative, a long-time base for the state’s GOP. But Gillespie, with his establishment ties and moderate reputation, has faced his share of challenges in the region. It is committed to Donald Trump, and in the gubernatorial primary it overwhelmingly backed former Trump campaign official Corey Stewart. And on October 14, in the region’s 9th Congressional District, he dug himself into a deeper hole.

According to The Washington Post, Gillespie did not allow former Trump campaign staffer Jack Morgan to plan or appear at an Abingdon, Virginia, rally featuring Vice President Mike Pence. Gillespie’s behavior so incensed Morgan, the Post reported, that Morgan’s wife “refused to drive John Whitbeck, chair of the Republican Party of Virginia, to the airport for his return trip.” Other conservative activists displayed their outrage on social media. “Ed showing his elitist butt to the 9th was a MONUMENTAL error from which he will not recover,” one announced on Facebook.

This is a delicious exaggeration. The Gillespie campaign assured the Post that the candidate’s relationship with Morgan is intact, and so his awkward waltz with Trumpism persists. Nevertheless, Gillespie’s race with Democrat Ralph Northam is tight; a lot hinges on turnout, meaning any controversy is potentially costly. Not even a Republican can take western Virginia entirely for granted.

What does that mean for the Northam campaign, and for Democrats in the state? Should they be reaching out to rural voters? Trump had barely won office before headlines credited his victory in part to Hillary Clinton’s failure to reach this demographic, and Northam’s decision to skip the Buena Vista, Virginia, Labor Day Parade briefly ignited similar fears. (Reached for comment, Northam spokesman David Turner responded, “We did a number of events, including a breakfast at Buena Vista. We’ve been out and about in rural Virginia extensively throughout this campaign.”) The party has struggled to fund campaigns for candidates for the General Assembly in the state’s southwest region; according to a previous Post report, canvassers for Democrat Alicia Kallen in Wise County had to photocopy their own “crude” materials.

But as far as the governor’s race is concerned, there are signs of life. Northam has released an extensive rural development plan, and though white papers didn’t help Clinton win rural voters, Northam’s roots in the state’s eastern shore region may give him a boost. In conversations with the New Republic, Democrats in rural western Virginia largely expressed optimism about the party’s trajectory there, despite the GOP’s dominance and popular perceptions of rural communities as backwards, ignorant places. Underneath these narrative burdens, local organizers have made inroads, determined to shift the region in a more progressive direction. The task ahead is daunting, they say, but not impossible.