Former coal baron Don Blankenship, who ran an unsuccessful 2018 bid for Senate in West Virginia, is running for president on a third-party ticket.
Blankenship, 69, said he will be running as a candidate for the Constitution Party, a minor political party that places itself to the right of the Republican Party. Blankenship shares many of President Trump’s policy positions, including his desire to “flush the swamp,” but said that Trump hasn’t been effective.
“President Trump means well, but he simply cannot get it done because he is too busy mending his self-inflicted wounds and tripping over his ego,” Blankenship said, adding that he wants to “tightly secure our borders and end welfare and other benefits for those who are not ultimately granted citizenship.”
Blankenship is known for his 2018 Senate bid, during which he made famously referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as “Cocaine Mitch” and said that the Kentucky Republican’s father-in-law was a “wealthy Chinaperson.”
He lost the Republican primary in the race and then was blocked from running on a third-party ticket in the Senate race.
Blankenship served time in prison for purposely violating mine safety standards after a 2010 explosion at his mine company resulted in the deaths of 29 people.
