President urges voters to reject Senate contender
WASHINGTON — President Trump intervened Monday in the West Virginia Republican Senate primary, pleading with voters a day before the election to oppose former mine operator Don Blankenship and suggesting that his nomination would lead to a replay of the party’s embarrassing loss last year in Alabama.
Trump’s decision to speak out on the race came after Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whom Blankenship has targeted in a deeply personal manner, urged the president in a telephone call to weigh in against the controversial former coal executive, according to a Republican official familiar with the conversation.
On Tuesday, a handful of states — including West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana — are holding primary contests where Republicans are hoping to nominate candidates who can help the party keep control of Congress in this fall’s midterm elections. Trump’s plea gave voice to this anxiety, suggesting that a victory by Blankenship in the primary would all but ensure the re-election of the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Joe Manchin.
“Don Blankenship currently running for Senate, can’t win the General Election in your State. No way!” Trump wrote in a tweet. “Remember Alabama. Vote Rep. Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey.”
The tweet was a political gift to Blankenship’s two main Republican rivals, Rep. Evan Jenkins and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, in a state Trump won overwhelmingly and where he remains popular. It is unclear, though, how much impact Trump’s intervention will have in an election where many early votes already have been cast.
The president has felt burned by Republicans when he injected himself into other races only to see his preferred candidates fall short. A victory by Blankenship would be highly embarrassing to Trump, coming on the heels of his inability to lift party nominees in Pennsylvania earlier this year and in Alabama last December when Democrats claimed a Senate victory in a reliably Republican state.
In a statement responding, Blankenship said 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.” He added that the “establishment is misinforming him because they do not want me to be in the U.S. Senate and promote the President’s agenda.”
The former chief executive of Massey Energy, Blankenship served a year in federal prison after being convicted of conspiring to violate mine safety rules following the Upper Big Branch mining disaster in 2010 that claimed 29 lives.
He has faced a series of attacks from establishment Republicans for his role in the tragedy. He has also been criticized for keeping his official residence in Las Vegas and refusing to fully disclose his extensive financial holdings.
With Jenkins and Morrisey dividing votes, Blankenship has remained in contention. Internal surveys taken by his rivals indicate that he is near the top of the field.