RIPLEY, W.Va. — There are few places where Hillary Clinton is more toxic than West Virginia.

So why does a former Clinton campaign staffer think she stands any chance of flipping a House district here?

Talley Sergent, the state director for Clinton’s 2016 campaign, is coming off a resounding primary victory in the 2nd District, which stretches through central West Virginia into the eastern panhandle. Despite being outspent more than 2-to-1, she defeated a New Jersey transplant backed by national veterans groups by 25 points.

Touting herself as a sixth-generation West Virginian, Sergent’s now trying to unseat GOP Rep. Alex X. Mooney, the former chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, who moved to West Virginia shortly before running for Congress in 2014.

Both candidates marched in the the July Fourth parade here last week. Mooney was close to the front, just ahead of GOP Senate nominee Patrick Morrisey, while Sergent was nearer to the end of the 200-float procession, far behind the Democratic senator at the top of her ticket.