“To the great people of West Virginia,” President Trump tweeted Monday morning, “we have, together, a really great chance to keep making a big difference. Problem is, Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, can’t win the General Election in your State…No way! Remember Alabama. Vote Rep. Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey!”
This was Trump’s way of warning Republican voters in the Mountain State to stay away from Blankenship, the erratic ex-con whom Democrats have spent more than $1 million trying to help win the GOP nomination.
We urge them to listen to Trump, whose ability to get his judicial nominees confirmed next year probably depends on Blankenship losing.
Blankenship was once the high-flying CEO of Massey Energy, until the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster of 2010 brought an end to his comfortable life and eight-figure pay package. Twenty-nine coal miners, all but two of the miners on the site, were killed in a coal dust explosion. The blast was caused by flagrant violations of basic mine safety, which Blankenship was convicted of conspiring to violate willfully.
It was a shock, then, to see someone responsible for so much death and destruction for West Virginia families emerge from prison and launch a campaign as an everyman, in a state where coal miners are revered much like firemen are in other parts of the country.
Blankenship is trying to capitalize on the same anti-establishment fervor that propelled Trump to power. But the two men are not the same. For all his faults, no one ever accused Trump of causing dozens of workers to die because he cut corners on his job sites.
What’s more, Trump has personal charisma and tells stories in a way that make his appeal easy to understand even for those who hate him. Blankenship, in contrast, can be seen staring blankly in his kooky television ads, spouting racist conspiracy theories about “Chinapeople” and what he keeps calling Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “China family” (that is, the Kentucky Republican’s Taiwanese wife and in-laws) importing drugs into the U.S. He calls McConnell “cocaine Mitch,” both in his ads and public appearances.
Republicans have two excellent alternatives to Blankenship, both of whom act like the sane adults they are and neither of whom is responsible for the deaths of dozens of coal miners. Either Attorney General Patrick Morrisey or Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., will have an excellent chance of defeating Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. That explains why Democrats are using shady super PACs and spending so much money to help Blankenship win.
Manchin was once a highly popular former governor. Despite being a Democrat, he survived his state’s political realignment by dint of his personal popularity. But he is so vulnerable this year that his only path to victory is probably for Blankenship to win today’s race, forcing Republicans into a situation much like the one they faced in Alabama last year, in which former Judge Roy Moore, accused of fondling teenage girls, handed Democrats a Senate seat they have no business occupying.
If you are hoping for a Democratic Senate that will block Trump’s nominees, then vote for Blankenship. If you want to do Trump a favor, and help him appoint another Supreme Court justice in the next two years, then listen to him now and vote for the better, electable, choices.
