Tag: Don Blankenship

Blankenship Chases U.S. Senate Seat Despite GOP Primary Loss

Despite losing the Republican primary in a distant third-place, convicted ex-coal baron Don Blankenship announced Monday that he will continue his bid for…

Despite losing the Republican primary in a distant third-place, convicted ex-coal baron Don Blankenship announced Monday that he will continue his bid for U.S. Senate as a third-party candidate, though it’s unclear if the move violates West Virginia’s “sore loser” law.

Blankenship will run as a member of the Constitution Party, which nominated him by a unanimous vote, his campaign said in a news release.

West Virginia secretary of state spokesman Steve Adams said Blankenship has officially switched his party affiliation to the Constitution Party. But Adams has said West Virginia’s “sore loser” or “sour grapes” law prohibits candidates affiliated with a major party who lose in a primary from changing their registration to a minor party to take advantage of later filing deadlines.

In comments made before Monday’s announcement, Mike Queen, who is communications director for Secretary of State Mac Warner, said Blankenship wouldn’t be allowed to run in a general election.

“The Secretary’s position is that Mr. Blankenship is not permitted to run again in the general election for the United States Senate,” Queen told the Charleston Gazette-Mail in a story published Saturday. “If Mr. Blankenship pursues the matter, he will most likely have to bring a legal action to force the Secretary to approve his candidacy.”

On Monday, the office referred questions to its chief legal counsel, Steve Connolly, who said it was premature to focus on the legality of Blankenship’s third-party candidacy.

“The only tangible thing we have right now is a party registry,” Connolly said. “We don’t have certificates of nomination or anything more than his press release. Once somebody files, then we’ll come to a decision. As of right now, we don’t have anything in front of us to decide.”

Earlier this year, the Legislature strengthened state election code by specifying that candidates who fail to win their party’s primary cannot become a candidate for the same office through a nomination or certificate process. That change is effective June 5.

Connolly said state code also requires anyone seeking elected office to be registered with their political party 60 days prior to the certificate of announcement.

The race is expected to be highly competitive and could help decide control of the Senate as Democratic incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin seeks re-election. West Virginia gave President Donald Trump his largest margin of victory in 2016 and has trended hard toward Republicans in recent years.

In his statement, Blankenship says, “Although the establishment will likely begin their efforts against us by mounting a legal challenge to my candidacy, we are confident that — if challenged — our legal position will prevail, absent a politically motivated decision by the courts.”

Blankenship said his personal views align with those of the Constitution Party, whose goal is to restore U.S. government philosophy to its Biblical foundations and to limit the federal government to its constitutional boundaries.

Blankenship, a former executive of Massey Energy, spent a year in federal prison for violating mine regulations in a 2010 mine explosion that killed 29 miners.

More recently, he took swipes at “China people” and referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as “Cocaine Mitch” in campaign ads during the Republican primary. Blankenship sold himself as “Trumpier than Trump” during the race, but the president opposed him. The White House worried that Blankenship’s baggage would make it all but impossible to defeat Manchin in the general election.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey claimed the GOP nomination instead, promoting his record of challenging policies of the Obama administration.

On Blankenship’s third-party candidacy announcement, Morrisey campaign spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik said Morrisey “is the only candidate who can defeat Senator Joe Manchin and who will stand with President Trump for West Virginians. We will comment on any ballot issues as they may arise.”

Looking ahead to the general election, Manchin — who has held elected office in West Virginia for the better part of three decades — has a huge financial advantage over Morrisey after easily winning the Democratic primary. But he’s expected to face the most difficult re-election campaign of his career.

On Twitter, Trump Urges West Virginians to Reject Blankenship in GOP U.S. Senate Primary

Updated: Monday, May 7, 2018 at 9:42 a.m.

Just a day before West Virginia’s primary election, President Donald Trump has weighed in on the GOP Primary. With Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship gaining widespread attention in the lead-up to Tuesday, Trump tweeted early Monday morning — urging West Virginians to vote against the coal baron. Monday marks the first occasion the president has publicly spoken for or against any candidate in the race.

“To the great people of West Virginia 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!” Trump wrote on the social media platform.

The Republican president maintains a strong approval rating in West Virginia at 61 points, according to March polling from Morning Consult. He won the state in the 2016 election by 42 percentage points.

He also referenced the failed U.S. Senate bid of Roy Moore in a December Alabama special election. “Remember Alabama,” the president said. Trump supported Moore, who was accused of sexual assault against children, in the race against Democrat Doug Jones.

Trump encouraged West Virginia voters to support either Congressman Evan Jenkins or state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey over Blankenship. All six of the candidates in the West Virginia GOP primary for U.S. Senate have attempted to align themselves with the president, who are hoping to take on U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin in November. Manchin faces his own primary challenger Tuesday in progressive newcomer Paula Jean Swearengin.

Blankenship served one year in prison for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards, a misdemeanor. He finishes a year of supervised release Wednesday, the day after the election. 

In a written statement, Blankenship addressed Trump’s tweet:

“The President is a very busy man and he doesn’t know me, and he doesn’t know how flawed my two main opponents are in this primary,” Blankenship said. “The establishment is misinforming him because they do not want me to be in the U.S. Senate and promote the President’s agenda.”

Blankenship argued that neither Jenkins or Morrisey could beat Manchin without his support, but he would prevail over the Democratic stalwart “even without the support of the establishment.”

“West Virginia voters should remember that my enemies are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and my opponents would not even be running as Republicans had I not resurrected the Republican Party in West Virginia,” Blankenship added. 

In early April, Trump appeared in White Sulphur Springs for an event billed as a roundtable discussion on tax reform, although the event was campaign-like fashion. He spent much of the event taking aim at Manchin while being flanked on either side by Jenkins and Morrisey.

He explicitly referenced the race at the end of the event, as he asked the audience to cheer for Jenkins or Morrisey in a demonstration of how the crowd planned to vote in the upcoming GOP senate primary.

“Patrick and Evan, good luck. I don’t know, you two. Good luck,” Trump said in White Sulphur Springs.

Polls open Tuesday at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.

 

Two Days Before Election Day, Morrisey Calls Out Blankenship for 'Ongoing' Legal Issues

 

Updated: May 6, 2018 at 8:20 p.m.

One GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in West Virginia says one of his opponents should be ineligible for Tuesday’s primary.

With former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship seeming to gain momentum as Election Day nears, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey held a news conference Sunday to announce that he’s informing the former coal baron’s probation officer about illegal activity — in April the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported Blankenship failed to file a financial disclosure with the Senate.

“There are six candidates in this race. Five of us have obeyed the law. Don Blankenship is not above the law,” Morrisey said of Blankenship’s failure to file the disclosure.

Morrisey added that his campaign was contacting Blankenship’s probation officer “to determine if this refusal to comply with federal law violates the terms of the supervised release” under the Ethics in Government Act. That law calls for U.S. Senate candidates to file the financial disclosure.

Blankenship spent a year in prison for violating federal mine safety standards following the Upper Big Branch explosion in 2010. The blast killed 29 men at the mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. Following his release from prison in May 2017, the former coal company executive had his residency moved to Nevada. He finishes a year of supervised release Wednesday, the day after the election.

“Don Blankenship is not the man who can beat me. We need a conservative fighter to take on Joe Manchin — not a convicted criminal with massive ongoing legal problems,” said Morrisey, referring to the Democratic incumbent and likely matchup in November for whomever wins the Republican nomination Tuesday.

According to Blankenship’s original sentencing order from April 2016, the terms of his supervised release state that he “must not commit another federal, state, or local crime” among other conditions.

The website of the U.S. Senate’s Select Committee on Ethics says financial disclosures filed more than 30 days after the due date “shall subject the filer to a mandatory $200 penalty.” A section on that same website titled ‘non-compliance penalty’ says that the law authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to seek a civil penalty of up to $50,000 against anyone who “knowingly and willfully falsifies or fails to file or to report any required information,” in addition to other action called for by the committee.  “Moreover, anyone who knowingly and willfully falsifies or conceals any material fact in a statement to the Government may be subject to fines, criminal prosecution, and sentencing,” the website also states.

“I don’t personally think anybody should have to disclose private information,” Blankenship recently told the New York Times in an interview.

Asked by a reporter during Sunday’s press conference why he didn’t take the opportunity to address these issues in a series of debates during the past few weeks, Morrisey indicated he didn’t think Blankenship’s candidacy would have such an impact on the race.

“To be honest, I thought that West Virginians would see through the candidacy of Don Blankenship even more. And it’s apparent over the last couple days — as he’s been moving up, getting very close in the polls — I think it’s in the public interest to be able to talk about this information,” Morrisey said.

Greg Thomas, a spokesperson for Blankenship, said Morrisey is “desperate” and “grasping at straws.” He added that Blankenship has already alerted proper authorities he would be filing the disclosure late as a result of his complicated finances.

Through mailers, ads and other campaign materials, Blankenship has attacked Morrisey as well as Congressman Evan Jenkins, who is also vying for the Republican nomination for the seat. Jenkins rounds out the top three front-runners in the six-man GOP primary, which will be held Tuesday, May 8.

Well-funded Republicans have attacked Blankenship through the Mountain Families PAC. However, the Democrat-funded Duty and Country PAC has gone after Morrisey and Jenkins — seemingly in an attempt to place Blankenship in what they see as a can’t-win race against Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin.

 

Former Coal Company CEO Don Blankenship Polarizes GOP Primary Electorate in Southern W.Va.

Polls show former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship hovering in third place in the six-way Republican U.S Senate primary primary race. In his native Mingo County, Blankenship’s donations to the community, and a belief that he will help bring back jobs, have led some to support him.

On one end of the main street in Matewan, West Virginia, a replica train station houses memorabilia from the Hatfield-McCoy feud and the historic Mine Wars. Don Blankenship grew up near here in this Mingo County town along the border with Kentucky. Massey paid for this million-dollar museum and welcome center, and a plaque on the wall bears Blankenship’s name.  

On the other end is the local chapter of United Mine Workers of America — the union Blankenship tried to break at his own mines. Among the signs planted firmly out front is one thanking Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democrat Blankenship hopes to challenge in November.

Joe Vagott is the of head of the Matewan Visitors and Convention Bureau. He said he’s still undecided but is leaning toward Blankenship. The 60-year-old former Massey security officer recognizes that this man, whose kids grew up playing with his own, is a polarizing figure.

“He’s done a lot of great things for this community,” Vagott said. “It depends on which side of the fence you’re looking from.”

A jury found that Blankenship conspired to violate mine safety and health standards at Upper Big Branch in Raleigh County. Twenty-nine miners died there in 2010. It was the worst U.S. mine explosion in 40 years, and he spent a year in federal prison. 

Independent investigators found that sparks in the mine ignited a pocket of methane, setting off a chain of explosions, which could have been prevented. Blankenship maintains that the Mine Safety and Health Administration cut the mine’s airflow, leading to an explosion and a widespread cover-up. But no other independent source who has studied what happened has ever reached that conclusion. Even before Upper Big Branch, MSHA found that Blankenship ran dangerous mines for years.

It’s Complicated

Terry Steele, 65, is a retired coal miner and rank-and-file UMWA member in Nicholas County. He said he doesn’t know anyone who supports Blankenship where he lives. He also has a home in Matewan, and things are more complex there.

“There’s still division all over the area for who are for him, and those who not only against, we’re dead-set against him,” Steele said. “He brags about busting the union. If he gets it beat, it’ll be because the union beat him. And it will be enjoyable.”

Blankenship is running a self-funded campaign. None of his rivals have raised the mine disaster as a campaign issue, but national Republicans are working to oppose him. 

Those who do support him describe a man whose presence brings jobs — and one who put money back in the community when few others did. Bo Copley is a 41-year-old former coal miner from Williamson, and he’s not the Copley running against Blankenship in the GOP primary. He touches on that nostalgia.

“When he had Massey, when it was Massey, he kept everybody working [and] kept money in their pockets,” Copley said. “He’ll fight for us. I don’t know that that’s what he’s running on, but he’ll fight for us back here. Manchin has fought for us before. I don’t know these other guys. I know Don.”

David Cook Jr., 51, is a longtime coal truck driver and a former assistant coach for the powerhouse Matewan high school football team, the Tigers. Cook is a Democrat, but said he’d choose Blankenship over Manchin because Blankenship has helped Matewan where it counted. Cook says Blankenship helped to raise money for the team before the school was consolidated. Then after major flooding destroyed the field and equipment in 2002, he wrote a big check. 

“There’s been a lot of people in this area that made millions of millions of dollars that I can’t remember ever helping us do anything,” Cook said. “He never said no. He helped us anytime we ever needed him…[Blankenship as] Senator would be the greatest thing to ever happen to southern West Virginia.”

The flood response factors in heavily for Denise Sipple, a 42-year-old from North Matewan. She works at a grocery store just over the border in Kentucky. She said, her husband had a successful career at Massey. And as Independents, they can vote in Republican primary in West Virginia. 

“He actually sent his own trucks and his own equipment and dug people out and helped clean the roads off and make everything made things passable himself,” Sipple said. “Because it took forever for FEMA or anybody to get down here.”

A View from the Past

Gestures like that go a long way. Chuck Keeney, an Appalachian history professor at Southern WV Technical and Community College, said they hearken back to the days when corporate titans acted as benefactors even while ruling with an iron fist.

“It’s 21st Century welfare capitalism. It was started in the 1920s, adopted by big industries, largely as an anti-union movement, but it also about providing recreational facilities, PR, ball fields, things like that for local communities to deflect criticism of companies and build up public support,” Keeney said. “Blankenship has played into that quite effectively in the southern coalfields, and for some individuals that means a lot.”

Keeney senses a lot of gusto for Blankenship that’s not reflected in other candidates.

“You have people that support Blankenship tend to be very enthusiastic in their support.” he said. “Now there are people who are very enthusiastic in their dislike of Blankenship obviously. And I think enthusiasm was one of the things that helped Trump win in 2016.”

UBB Anger Persists

About 100 miles away in Raleigh County, Gary Quarles walks around his woodsy living room, surrounded by mine memoriabilia and dozens of family photos. He and his wife, Patty, lost their only son, Gary Wayne, in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion. He was 33 and left behind an 8-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. An autopsy revealed he also had black lung disease.

The Blankenship signs that dot the road between Williamson and Matewan are nowhere to be found in these parts, just minutes away from where the mine exploded. If a Blankenship ad comes on TV, Gary turns it off, but then they show up when he’s listening to country music on YouTube.

Quarles is angry about Blankenship’s run. He’s accepted that some people refuse to believe the facts about the mine disaster, but he wonders how anyone could vote for him.

“He cares nothing about nobody, and people need to know that,” Quarles said. “If you ain’t made up your mind, and it’s laying on your mind about should I or shouldn’t I, Don don’t care about you. That should be enough not to vote for Don Blankenship.”

And though he never wants to see him again, he has a message for Blankenship himself.

“You’ve got the money, you can go anywhere you want to go, so go and leave us alone,” Quarles said. “You’ve not cared a thing about the people that got killed at UBB, and you’ve never apologized to nobody.”

That unrepenting attitude has shades of another larger-than-life coalfields personality — Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin. He led the armed movement to break up the unions in a violent chapter of the mine wars. Chuck Keeney says the area has a history of defying figures like Chafin and celebrating them at the same time. 

“He went to jail, came back, and the town threw a parade for him when he came back from prison,” Keeney said. “This tough, no comprising type of individual, who never apologizes, who never admits he was wrong. I think for whatever reason people in this region tend to be drawn to because they believe that that’s the type of individual that can get things done.”

The 2018 GOP primary is May 8.

Ex-Coal Baron Takes Swipe at 'China People' in Political Ad

An ex-coal executive who’s running for U.S. Senate after serving a prison sentence has unleashed a political ad that takes swipes at “China people” and calls the Senate majority leader “Cocaine Mitch.”

Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, a Republican, is seeking the West Virginia seat now held by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, but his ad disparages Kentucky GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell. It’s the second ad he’s used to label the leader “Cocaine Mitch.”

Blankenship’s ad says McConnell has created jobs for “China people” and charges that his “China family” has given him millions of dollars. McConnell’s wife is U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who was born in Taiwan.

Blankenship says the ad is in response to false, negative ads that McConnell’s “swamp people” are running against him.

Blankenship filed for the Senate seat after serving prison time for violating federal mine safety standards at Upper Big Branch Mine in southern West Virginia, where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 men. He has vehemently denied responsibility for the deadly blast.

So far, his campaign has been mostly self-funded. According to his filing with the Federal Election Commission last month, he’s received a single $1,000 individual donation since announcing his candidacy late last year.

Blankenship previously discussed McConnell during a recent talk radio interview, saying, “I have an issue when the father-in-law is a wealthy China person and there’s a lot of connections to some of the brass, if you will, in China.”

Blankenship was asked about the “China person” comment during a debate Tuesday in Morgantown.

“This idea that I called somebody a China person, I mean I’m an American person,” Blankenship said. “I don’t see this insinuation by the press that there’s something racist about saying a China person. Some people are Korean persons and some of them are African persons. It’s not any slander there.”

Blankenship is at odds with McConnell, who he says is “spending millions to defeat me.”

A super PAC connected to McConnell, the Senate Leadership Fund, blasted out a news release Thursday decrying Blankenship’s “last round of racist comments,” and pointing to statements in 2009 in which Blankenship mulled a move to China.

According to media reports, Blankenship’s fiancee also was born in China. He has a six-bedroom home with her 20 miles from Las Vegas, in Henderson, but still has a home in southern West Virginia.

“I’m actually considering moving to China or somewhere and being more like George Washington, you know,” Blankenship said in the 2009 recorded phone call, which was used as evidence in his criminal trial. “If I can get citizenship, I can probably get citizenship in India. I’d rather be in China, but the hard work and the effort and the creativity that we put into running businesses in the U.S. would be much more valuable in other places.”

National GOP forces are believed to be behind the Mountain Families PAC, an organization created in March that has invested more than $700,000 attacking Blankenship on television. A spokesman for the Senate GOP’s most powerful super PAC has declined to confirm or deny a connection to the group.

Blankenship’s reference to “Cocaine Mitch” stems from a 2014 magazine article alleging that drugs were found aboard a commercial cargo ship owned by Chao’s family.

Chao was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States as a child with her family. Her father later founded a successful shipping company in New York. Chao worked in the administrations of presidents Ronald Regan and George H.W. Bush. In 1993, she married McConnell and has since served as cabinet secretaries for presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.

Blankenship said in a statement Thursday that the establishment is doing everything it can to keep Manchin in office.

“I am not just ready to help President Trump drain the swamp — I am the only candidate that is capable of doing so. If I am not the Republican nominee against Joe Manchin in the fall, Manchin will win,” he said.

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. dismissed that idea completely Thursday, making it clear he thinks a Blankenship nomination guarantees another Manchin term. He tweeted that there are two electable candidates in the race.

Six Republican candidates are in the primary, including U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who was endorsed Thursday by Kentucky’s junior U.S. Sen. Rand Paul.

“I hate to lose. So I’m gonna go out on a limb here and ask the people of West Virginia to make a wise decision and reject Blankenship! No more fumbles like Alabama. We need to win in November.” Trump Jr. tweeted Thursday.

Blankenship responded, tweeting to Trump Jr. that the president’s son was “misinformed and misled by McConnell’s cronies while you were at the RNC meeting yesterday in Miami.”

Trump Jr. tweeted a few more times about Blankenship, saying Manchin would quickly mention the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster.

“Ha, now I’m establishment? No, I’m realistic & I know the first thing Manchin will do is run ads featuring the families of those 29 miners killed due to actions that sent you to prison. Can’t win the general… you should know that & if others in the GOP won’t say it, I will,” Trump Jr. tweeted Thursday.

Debates, Outside Spending & Trump: The Rundown on the Run-Up to the GOP U.S. Senate Primary

Just days before West Virginia’s primary, the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate has become increasingly aggressive and bold with attacks between candidates. Fueled by the national spotlight, a recent string of debates and high-dollar out-of-state spending, GOP Senate hopefuls have focused their bids on aligning themselves with President Donald Trump — who maintains a strong approval rating in the state at 61 points, according to March polling from Morning Consult.  

While earlier debates this primary season were relatively dry, a Tuesday night event in Morgantown hosted by Fox News delivered frequent sparring, particularly between Congressman Evan Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. The two front-runners kept with a running theme of their respective campaigns: try to out-Trump the other.

“Who did you vote for in the May [2016] primary in West Virginia? I endorsed and voted for Donald Trump. Who did you vote for?” Jenkins quizzed Morrisey at the debate.

“I support the president and that’s why just a few weeks ago…just a few weeks ago when I sat next to the president — and Evan was there as well. We have a great relationship. We’ve worked together. I was proud to run ads with the president and support him at the convention floor. There were a lot of people that were not — Evan supported him the day before the primary. That’s no profile in courage,” Morrisey fired back.

Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship finishes one year of supervised released on Wednesday, the day after the election. Blankenship served a year in federal prison for conspiring to violate mine safety standards, a misdemeanor stemming from the Upper Big Branch disaster. The April 2010 explosion killed 29 miners.

Throughout his campaign, the former coal baron has maintained his innocence and — despite his status as a first-time candidate — has attempted to take credit for the Republican takeover in West Virginia politics in recent elections. At Tuesday’s Fox News debate, Blankenship used his past political influence to take shots at Jenkins and Morrisey.

“If it weren’t for me, neither these two guys would be up here. It’s funny that Pat [Morrisey] says he’s the only conservative on the stage,” Blankenship said Tuesday night. “Conservatives weren’t even popular in West Virginia until I caused them to be conservative by investing about five million dollars of my own money.”

Blankenship helped fund the election of a conservative state Supreme Court Justice in 2004 and has self-funded his bid for U.S. Senate.

But it’s not just the candidates themselves who have taken aim at their fellow GOP Senate hopefuls. Money from Super PACs — coming from Republicans and Democrats — has been fueling an onslaught of television and social media ads in recent weeks.

The pro-Morrisey 35th PAC has specifically targeted Jenkins, who appears to be leading the field according to a Fox News poll released last week. (The same poll also puts Trump’s approval rating in West Virginia at 87 percent.)

There’s also ads from Mountain Families PAC, a Republican-backed organization that has spent more than $700,000 trying to end Blankenship’s chances at scoring the nomination.

But perhaps the most peculiar outside player in the GOP primary is Duty and Country, a PAC whose treasurer is former U.S. Attorney and Democrat Booth Goodwin. He was responsible for trying the Blankenship case back in 2015. Duty and Country is taking on both Jenkins and Morrisey — seemingly to place Blankenship in what they hope is an insurmountable race against would-be Democratic nominee Manchin.

While Jenkins, Morrisey and Blankenship have been the most recognizable names in the race, three other Republicans are also vying for the party nomination. They’ve taken a similar strategy as their front-running counterparts: pro-Trump, anti-Manchin. While these contenders garnered fewer debate invites, they say they’re still in the running.

“You can throw all the big name recognition out the window because, at this point, it’s a four-man race. We’re within 12 points. The top four candidates are all crammed within 10 points of each other. There’s still a huge undecided vote out there around 30 percent,” said Tom Willis of Martinsburg, another candidate in the race.

According to the recent Fox News poll, the undecided vote for likely Republican voters actually sits at 41 percent in this race.

Willis touts his credentials as a small business owner and a green beret honors graduate, as a remedy for what he sees as failed policies in recent times.

“I think all of the candidates would agree that Joe Manchin has failed to provide leadership. He’s been in office in politics for 30 years and West Virginia remains near the end of all the different rankings. That’s a symptom of a lack of leadership,” he said.

Laid-off coal miner-turned-Senate candidate Bo Copley found himself thrust into the national spotlight during the 2016 presidential campaign, when he questioned Hillary Clinton’s comments on the coal industry. Copley sees the big spending by the top three candidates and their outside backers as a disadvantage in some ways, but also as an opportunity.

“People are tired of they type of typical politician that we have in these races. I’m not a politician, I’m just a West Virginia. I’m trying to make life better for those that live life like I do,” Copley said.

Copley argues that the top three front runners in Jenkins, Morrisey and Blankenship are too far removed from the lives of average West Virginians.

“One of the biggest problems we face is people don’t know that we’re in the race because we can’t advertise the way they do. I’ve seen so many comments on social media as I get if this is the only thing that we have to choose from I won’t vote. And we have to quickly say, ‘No, you have other options,’” he said.

Rounding out the field is Navy veteran and truck driver Jack Newbrough from Weirton?. At a debate last week in Wheeling, Newbrough drew attention for his comments about carrying a gun to the event, as well as his position on how to combat the opioid scourge that’s hit the country — he suggested waterboarding dealers. He, too, believes the GOP front-runners will be an easy target should they be nominated.

“Look at Joe Manchin — he has so much ammunition to go after them on because of their past. What’s he gonna go after me on? Either I’m a Navy vet or I’m a truck driver. I mean, there’s nothing else for him to say. I mean, if he get knocks me on either one of those me what else can he go with?” Newbrough said.

As for the millions of outside dollars coming into the primary, Newbrough says he’s happy he had no involvement.

“I mean I have not taken a dime from anybody. I don’t take any endorsements. I don’t take any donations — and I will refuse to take. I’d like to prove a point – you don’t need to raise millions of dollars to win a race. Do I think it’s going to happen? I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out May 8,” he said.

Polls are open on election day from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Early voting ends Saturday, May 5.

 

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Blankenship is finishing a year of probation. In fact, he is on supervised release following his release from prison last year.

 

 

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