Ray Roberts can drop names with just about any Republican. He has met Karl Rove, both George Bushes, and he flew Dan Quayle around the country in a private plane when the former vice president was considering a run for the White House.

But the 53-year-old Blacksburg native, a commercial real estate agent and corporate pilot, has never been a national convention delegate.

"The timing was never right," he said.

Then, this summer, while handing out John McCain bumper stickers with his 9-year-old daughter, Lauren, Roberts was surprised to be chosen to attend the party gathering this week in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

There wasn't much competition for his spot at the convention, he said, noting that party officials at first told him there were three other candidates. But they apparently all dropped out at the last minute. "You have to understand, it's expensive," Roberts explained. "You pay your own way."

Still, he's up for the rally, being a big supporter of McCain and welcoming a chance for Lauren to glimpse him on TV at the Republicans' big show.

Yet Roberts said the campaign will be won in the trenches, with door-to-door help from local volunteers.

"I really believe this election will be won in Virginia by a margin of 1 percent. We need every registered voter from both parties -- and the independents -- that we can get," he said.

He speaks from experience, having tasted defeat the first time he volunteered for a presidential candidate in 1976. Two years after Gerald Ford's loss, Roberts' father, Ray Roberts Sr., made an unsuccessful bid for a Virginia state Senate seat in Montgomery County.

The delegate said he's looking forward to the convention, but not just to be with other Republicans. He said he plans to take some McCain bumper stickers with him and walk around the Twin Cities with the goal of giving some to willing members of the opposition.

He's hopeful because of some success he had this summer while campaigning for McCain in Montgomery County.

"We get lots of Democrats coming up to us and saying they'll vote for him," he said.