If she wins in November, the fiscally conservative 18-year-old also would become the youngest state lawmaker in the nation, according to records kept by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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House chambers in Arizona, Colorado and Utah, for example, require candidates to be at least 25 years old, while at least two states require state senators to be at least 30. Some states have no age requirements.
In her bid to represent a small district in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, about 1½ hours outside Washington, D.C., Ms. Blair defeated the 66-year-old Republican incumbent in a May primary when she was still 17.
Now in her first semester of college, she does most of her campaigning out of her dorm room. A 16-page flier trumpets her antiabortion and pro-gun positions, and her desire to reduce certain taxes on businesses.
“It’s not rocket science,” Ms. Blair said of campaigning. “It’s a matter of listening to people and learning about their views.”
A political bent runs in her family. Her father, Craig Blair, is a Republican state senator who owns a water-softening business and does graphic-design work for her campaign.
Ms. Blair hopes to benefit from the state’s increasingly conservative voting habits. No polls have been conducted in the race, but the district, which covers parts of two counties where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats, also typically favors GOP candidates.
Her Democratic opponent in November, Layne Diehl, a 44-year-old Martinsburg attorney, gives Ms. Blair credit for running a good campaign, but she draws a sharp distinction between their views.
Ms. Diehl said her top priorities are improving the state’s secondary education system, solving the drug epidemic and addressing residents’ concerns about the potential hazards of fracking waste from well drilling being dumped in the eastern panhandle.
“We’re at a very pivotal and critical time in our history in West Virginia, and it’s going to take a lot of effort and skill and experience,” Ms. Diehl said. “I do think that I have some experience that she doesn’t have.”
Ms. Blair also is from Martinsburg, and she said her father and Ms. Diehl’s husband have been friends for years. “I won’t go negative,” Ms. Blair said.
Ms. Blair promotes her youth as an asset, saying the voice of younger voters should be heard in the state capitol. An economics major, she hopes to become a financial planner, and she supports term limits.
“I don’t believe in career politicians,” she said.
Ms. Blair is a member of the College Republicans on campus and is involved with the student government association.
If she wins, she said she would defer her spring semester to attend the part-time legislature’s 60-day session and make up classes in the summer and fall.
As a high-school student attending a program at the capitol in Charleston, Ms. Blair drafted two mock bills, one to bolster vocational training statewide and another to create an intermediate appellate court that would address concerns of business groups that the state’s judicial system favors plaintiffs’ lawyers. She said she would continue to support those positions if she is elected.
Ms. Blair has raised $15,000, compared with $11,000 raised by her Democratic opponent, according to the latest available state finance reports. She also has kicked in $3,900 of her own money she had saved from holiday gifts and working at a family orchard.
“Candidates should have some skin in the game,” Ms. Blair said. “I wanted voters to know I was serious.”
Corrections & Amplifications
In an earlier version of this article, West Virginia Republican State Delegate candidate Saira Blair was incorrectly identified in the photo caption as a Democrat. The caption also incorrectly referred to Martinsburg as being in Virginia instead of West Virginia.
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