Elizabeth Truss, a Conservative parliamentary candidate on the national party's A-list, has survived an attempt to deselect her.
The South West Norfolk Conservative group voted 132 to 37 to back her as their candidate at the next general election.
The vote was called over concerns that the association was not told of an affair that she had with Tory MP Mark Field in 2004-5.
The local party was not told about the affair, although it was widely publicised at the time and information was easily available on Google. They only learned about the affair in a Sunday tabloid, the day after Truss, a councillor at Greenwich in south-east London and deputy director of the centre-right think-tank, Reform was chosen for the safe Tory seat last month.
The disagreement over Truss, 34, has highlighted the gulf in the Conservative party between the so-called Notting Hill set, keen on modernisation, and local Tories, dubbed "the Turnip Taliban" by senior Conservatives.
She is on David Cameron's A-list of candidates designed to increase the number of female and ethnic minority MPs in the Conservative party.
Leaving the meeting, leading Tory Sir Jeremy Bagge said: "I am not proud to be a Conservative because central office has deceived and betrayed us. These are strong words but that's how I feel."
After hearing the result, Truss said: "I am absolutely delighted".
The local Conservative association had also been upset that there had not been a local person on the selection list.
In an interview with BBC Look East, Truss said: "What the people here really want is somebody who is going to live locally and address the issues. I am already renting a place in Swaffham. I am going to buy a place in due course."
She added: "I want to work with everybody in the local party. All the people who supported me and those who didn't."
Sign up to the New Statesman newsletter and receive weekly updates from the team.
