Mitch McConnell Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Capito Will Rise To Senior Senator. What Does That Mean For W.Va.?

Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election. When he leaves the chamber next January, that elevates Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s seniority.

Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito will become West Virginia’s senior senator next year. What does that mean for the state’s clout in Washington?

Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election. When he leaves the chamber next January, that elevates Capito’s seniority.

Capito is a member of the Senate Republican leadership, and she is the senior Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Both serve on the Appropriations Committee, which gives West Virginia an unusual amount of say over federal spending. Manchin, though, is a committee chairman of Energy and Natural Resources. His departure could diminish the state’s influence.

Unless Republicans wrest control of the Senate after November, which would make Capito chair of the environment committee. That committee authorizes road and bridge projects, as well as water and wastewater infrastructure. Capito took a lead role in what became the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which has brought billions of dollars in funding to the Mountain State. Manchin had a hand in it as well.

West Virginia has a long history of senators leveraging their seniority, up to and including Manchin and Capito. Capito says she’ll continue to leverage hers.

“Well, I will be the senior senator after this next election,” she said. “And that means that my clout is more powerful, and my voice will be more powerful.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Thursday he’d be stepping down as Republican leader in November. McConnell said he’d complete his term. Still, Political observers in Kentucky say that will diminish the influence the state has long enjoyed.

It’s similar to West Virginia’s longtime Sen. Robert C. Byrd. Byrd served in various leadership positions, including majority leader, and he spent more than 50 years in the chamber, using his influence on the state’s behalf. After Byrd’s death in 2010, Manchin took his place.

Capito took the place of Sen. Jay Rockefeller in 2015. By the time he retired, Rockefeller had been in the Senate for 30 years and was chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Manchin Blames McConnell For Senate Failure Of Permitting Bill

Manchin’s bill to overhaul permitting for fossil fuel and renewable energy projects couldn’t get the 60 votes it needed to advance in the 100-member chamber.

Last week, the Senate voted down Sen. Joe Manchin’s bill to fast-track the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Manchin, D-WV, says he knows why.

Manchin’s bill to overhaul permitting for fossil fuel and renewable energy projects couldn’t get the 60 votes it needed to advance in the 100-member chamber.

He got 40 Democrats to go along and needed 20 Republicans.

But when the Senate Republican leader announced his opposition, that was pretty much the end of it.

“And I watched it happen, and Mitch McConnell held all the Republicans off,” Manchin said. “We got seven. That was it.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, was one of the seven who signed on. President Joe Biden also gave it his endorsement.

Manchin said he plans to try again next year.

Manchin did chalk up a win, though, for West Virginia in the big spending bill Congress is about to pass. It includes the STREAM Act, which will allow funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to be used to clean up acid mine drainage.

McConnell Capitalizes on Attack with 'Cocaine Mitch' Shirts

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is capitalizing on a fellow Republican’s attack by selling “Cocaine Mitch” shirts on his campaign’s website.

The Kentucky lawmaker’s 2020 reelection campaign tweeted Wednesday that McConnell was closing in on one of his biggest fund-raising days of the year thanks to sales of the bright red T-shirts, which feature a faceless, dark-haired figure over the name “MITCH” with a sprinkling of cocaine. On the back, they say “TEAM MITCH” and “CARTEL MEMBER.”

Buyers are urged to “join the ‘Team Mitch Cartel'” by purchasing the $35 shirts, and donating up to $2,800 per election. The campaign claimed they were “flying off the shelves.”

Don Blankenship coined the “Cocaine Mitch” moniker in a campaign ad during his failed Senate run from West Virginia last year. He was referring to a 2014 magazine article alleging that drugs were found aboard a commercial cargo ship owned by the family of McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who serves as President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary.

Blankenship, who served prison time for conspiring federal mine safety violations after 29 men died in an explosion at his Upper Big Branch Mine, said he was responding to false, negative ads that McConnell’s “swamp people” ran against him.

McConnell referenced the “Cocaine Mitch” attack in a parting shot last year mocking Blankenship’s election loss. Using a poster from the Netflix series “Narcos,” the McConnell campaign photoshopped the Senate leader’s head onto the body of the actor portraying Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

It’s not the first time McConnell has embraced negative labels and images that might have doomed other politicians. He acknowledged years ago that supporters of a campaign finance reform bill saw him as Darth Vader, while the bill’s opponents saw him as Luke Skywalker.

Now he seems to be embracing the dark side: “I will be the ‘grim reaper’ in the Senate when it comes to socialist schemes that would destroy jobs, private health insurance and the free enterprise system,” McConnell tweeted Wednesday.

A spokesman for the senator, Josh Holmes, said Thursday that they’ve received more than 1,000 orders for the shirts, and added bumper stickers to accommodate demand.

“Senator McConnell proves every election cycle that that having a sense of humor is the most valuable and least abundant commodity in politics,” Holmes said. “He managed to turn a slanderous attack on his family into an online movement of his supporters.”

McConnell Aide Takes Appalachian Regional Commission Role

Not long after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky squared off with President Trump over funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission, the ARC has a new federal co-chair with strong ties to McConnell.

Long-time McConnell aide Tim Thomas said he can see a day when the Appalachian Regional Commission is no longer needed. But that’s not something he expects to come any time soon.

“It will not happen on my watch, it will probably not happen on the watch of my successor, but I can see that day on the horizon,” Thomas said. “My vision for ARC is to see the day that this agency can shutter its doors because its goals and objectives have been reached in large measure.”

President Trump had wanted the ARC’s end to come much sooner than that. The President’s first budget proposed eliminating the commission. But McConnell and allies in Congress restored that funding.

Thomas worked for McConnell for almost 10 years as both a field representative and a field office director. He said that experience helped him become familiar with the ARC’s work.

“Coming from Kentucky, obviously I know how important ARC is to eastern Kentucky, a familiarity with those communities and their needs,” he said. “I think all of that just prepares me for my role here.”

A Long ARC

The ARC has invested over $3.8 billion in the Appalachian region since its creation during President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” Poverty rates have improved but the region is still home to some of the poorest communities in the country.

Thomas wants to focus on diversifying the economy by helping small business and entrepreneurs in the region as well as helping to deal with the opioid crisis. Those familiar with the ARC say Thomas will need political savvy to make that happen.

“One of the advantages I think Tim Thomas has is his connection with McConnell and that leadership and his ability to go to these other federal agencies and get their attention,” said Ron Eller, Appalachian author and an emeritus distinguished professor of history at the University of Kentucky.

Eller said it’s important to remember that the commission was created as a political entity and should be understood as such.

Most Republican presidents have sought to zero out the ARC budget, he said, but funding continues to be restored by powerful members of Congress whose districts benefit.

But Eller points out that the commission’s makeup means the majority of its power is in the hands of the governors of the Appalachian region states.

Author Ron Eller, University of Kentucky history professor.

“The governors since the late 1960s have really lost interest to a great degree in the economic problems of the Appalachian portions of their states,” he said.

Eller said there has been tension in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia over what economic development means for the region. The dominance of the coal industry has historically prevented alternative uses for federal funds to promote economic development. Now that coal is playing a smaller role in the economy in central Appalachia, he said, states are looking at alternatives for economic development.

He said the ARC needs to focus on more rural areas and not just larger cities and growth areas.

“I think there is tremendous potential for the Appalachian Regional Commission to assist, especially eastern Kentucky, in addressing the need for diversification, increase in small business development,” he said.

One of ARC’s recent initiatives is called Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization, or the POWER initiative, which Congress funded specifically to help communities affected by job losses in the Appalachian coal industry. Working with the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the POWER initiative has invested nearly $73 million in coal communities in less than two years.

See a full list of ARC POWER grant projects >>

“Undervalued Asset”

Thomas said the downturn in the coal industry has affected more than just coal miners, it’s also hurt railroad workers and truck drivers. Thomas said small business development is one of his top priorities.

“I am bullish on Appalachia, if it were a stock I’d be buying because I believe it to be an undervalued asset,” he said.

Thomas said most new jobs are created by small businesses, and there’s no reason to think the next great entrepreneur can’t come from Appalachia.

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.

Senate Leader Gets No Support from 3 Warring GOP Candidates

Three Republican Senate candidates took turns going after one another in a nationally televised debate, with Rep. Evan Jenkins accusing state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey of bringing “New Jersey values” to West Virginia, and Morrisey deriding Jenkins’ past as a Democrat.

And neither Jenkins, Morrisey nor former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship expressed support for the Senate’s Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

A week before the state’s primary election, the three candidates took part in one of the most contentious debates among several held recently across the state.

Morrisey accused Jenkins of having a liberal background and said his past stint as a Democrat should make voters wary. After switching to the Republican Party, Jenkins defeated 19-term Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall in 2014.

Jenkins pointed out this is not Morrisey’s first attempt at running for Congress, noting a failed 2000 attempt in his native New Jersey and a Morrisey campaign advertisement saying he’d fight anyone who goes against New Jersey values.

“You know what? We need somebody representing our values,” Jenkins said. “People need to be coming to West Virginia for the right reasons.”

Morrisey replied, “West Virginians wants someone with conservative values.”

Quizzed about his home near Las Vegas, Blankenship said he probably pays “more taxes than anybody on this stage to West Virginia.”

Blankenship served a year in federal prison for a misdemeanor conviction related to the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 men in southern West Virginia.

When asked about Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference, Blankenship, who has maintained his own innocence, provoked the loudest laugh of the night.

“You know, I’ve had a little personal experience with the Department of Justice,” he said. “They lie a lot, too.”

Three other trailing GOP candidates weren’t invited to Tuesday’s debate on Fox News.

When asked whether they would support McConnell as Senate majority leader, none of the candidates raised their hands — Blankenship ducked behind the podium.

Blankenship is at odds with McConnell, who he says is “spending millions to defeat me.” Earlier Tuesday, Blankenship’s campaign released a statement attacking McConnell.

The statement referred to a 2014 magazine article alleging that drugs were found aboard a commercial cargo ship owned by the family of McConnell’s wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The statement referred to McConnell as “Cocaine Mitch,” though the allegation didn’t directly involve the senator.

McConnell’s office referred questions to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Calls to the NRSC went unanswered Tuesday night.