HARRISONBURG — Republicans on Monday declared incumbent Del. Tony Wilt of Broadway to be the GOP nominee for the 26th House District seat he has occupied for seven years.

He is the nominee by default because Wilt, 55, was the only candidate to file for the nomination by Friday’s deadline, prompting the Harrisonburg and Rockingham County GOP committees to put his name on the Nov. 7 ballot.

But for the first time since he won a landslide majority in a 2010 special election, he will face a Democrat in the general election.

Wilt ran unopposed in 2011, ’13 and ’15 in a district that comprises all of the Democratic-leaning city of Harrisonburg and most of the overwhelmingly Republican Rockingham County. If he wins, he will serve his fourth full, two-year term.

His Democratic opponent will be the winner of a “firehouse primary” between James Madison University adjunct professor Cathy Copeland and media producer Brent Finnegan.

The primary, also known as an “unassembled caucus,” will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. April 28, with polling places at City Hall Council Chambers, 409 S. Main St., and the Linville-Edom Ruritan Hall, 3753 Linville Edom Road in Rockingham County.

“My policy is an open-door office, regardless of party, focusing on issues,” Wilt said Monday afternoon when asked about representing both constituencies.

“I try not to be too hard on the labels,” he continued. “I look at issues and try to decide what is good for the whole community.”

Wilt, president of the family-owned Superior Concrete of Harrisonburg, said he has worked largely “behind the scenes” on local legislation aimed at creating “better paying jobs and more of them.”

For example, he said, he had helped push several pieces of legislation making changes in “internal processes” at the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to “eliminate barriers to receiving a commercial driver’s license.”

“The trucking industry is one of those that has jobs, but they can’t find enough drivers,” Wilt said.

In addition, he said, the changes “take advantage of the state-of-the-art training programs at Blue Ridge Community College.”

Finnegan and Copeland, both of whom have never before run for elected office, said they had expected Wilt to run again.

But they said they see opportunities for change following the surprise victory by Donald Trump as president in November. It was a loss for Democrats that has galvanized the party and inspired people like them to get into politics, they said.

Copeland and Finnegan will square off in two town hall-style “moderated conversations,” according to city Democratic Committee Chairwoman Deb Fitzgerald.

The first is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 19 at the former Plan B coffee house, 202 N. Main St. in Broadway. The second will be a week later — and two days before the primary — at 7 p.m. April 26 in Court Square Theater, 41-F Court Square in downtown Harrisonburg.

In the 2010 special election that first put Wilt into office, he whipped a pair of opponents by a 2-1 margin: Kai Degner, Harrisonburg’s mayor at the time, and former Mayor Carolyn Frank, an independent.

The election was held because then-Del. Matt Lohr, a Republican, vacated his seat to become Virginia’s agriculture and consumer services commissioner.