Republican Don Blankenship is filing to run for Senate in West Virginia, taking on the state’s sore loser law that prohibits candidates who lost in the primary from running in the general election.
The Blankenship campaign acknowledged that the West Virginia secretary of state’s office was unlikely to certify his candidacy, but described his plan to file papers as a first step toward getting around state law and earning the right to challenge Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in the midterm elections as a third party candidate.
“Mr. Blankenship does not expect the filing to be certified and will vigorously challenge the denial through all legal means necessary. Mr. Blankenship fully expects to be on the ballot this November,” his campaign said in a statement.
In Washington, Republicans dismissed Blankenship’s announcement as a political stunt.
“Mr. Blankenship’s all about Mr. Blankenship. We’re looking forward to supporting Patrick Morrisey and getting him elected,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told the Washington Examiner.
Blankenship, a wealthy energy executive who has spent time in federal prison for skirting safety regulations, finished third in West Virginia’s May Republican primary, losing to Rep. Evan Jenkins and Morrisey, the state atttorney general and GOP nominee. He raised eyebrows in that campaign with provocative, racially tinged rhetoric and wild accusations against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Republican insiders, extending from the Senate to President Trump, warned Republican voters in West Virginia to defeat Blankenship or risk handing another term to Manchin. Trump is popular in West Virginia and has urged voters to throw out Manchin, but Republicans worried that Blankenship would be unacceptable to a majority of voters.
If the courts somehow granted him access to the ballot despite the sore loser law, he and Morrisey might divide the GOP vote in November and help elevate Manchin, who is vulnerable but has led in most recent public opinion polls. Republicans are downplaying Blankenship’s effort, predicting it will go nowhere.
“I think the people have spoken in the primary,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capitol, R-W.Va., said. “Republicans made a choice, and Patrick Morrisey is our candidate.”
