“What bothered me the most was Trump’s visit got our mayor a lot of press, but he basically used that press to say our city is a dump,” Shorraw told NBC News.

Shorraw resolved to run for mayor, even though he had never held public office and was only in his mid-20s.

On Tuesday, he narrowly defeated Mavrakis in the Democratic primary. And with no Republican on the ballot in November, Shorraw is all but guaranteed to be the youngest mayor in the town’s history.

“I think a bit of the Trump phenomenon was that people wanted something completely different. And I think that might have been the case in Monessen, too, with me,” said Shorraw.