CHARLESTON, W.Va. — CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – Don Blankenship hasn’t had much success running for office.
He ran for Senate as a Republican in 2018 and sought the White House in 2020 as a third-party candidate. He lost badly both times, but will be on the ballot again in 2024, this time as a Democrat seeking the Senate seat being vacated by Joe Manchin.
Blankenship has plenty of baggage heading into the May 14 Democratic primary. Aside from his history of political losses, he is perhaps best known in this coal-producing state as the former CEO of Massey Energy, who served a year in federal prison for conspiring to violate mine safety laws before an explosion at his coal mine in West Virginia killed 29 people. men in 2010.
With their threadbare Senate majority at stake in this year’s elections, Democrats are already pessimistic about their chances in West Virginia, where Manchin was the rare member of their party to find success in a state that saw the Republican former president Donald Trump carried with almost 39 percent. points in 2020. But a Blankenship victory in the primaries could prove particularly problematic for the party, leaving Democrats with an unpopular candidate with a complicated past in business and politics.
The party and its allies are trying to avoid that scenario.
Earlier this week, Manchin endorsed Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, who was an aide to legendary Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd and is unapologetically pro-union. Democratic Party Chairman Mike Pushkin argues that Blankenship is not a Democrat and likes to call him “federal inmate 12393-088,” a reference to his identification number while in prison. And Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers union — which supported Manchin in 2012 and 2018 — said seeing Blankenship run for Senate as a Democrat “may be the most fraudulent and cynical move” he has ever seen.
“And that says a lot,” Roberts joked. “If he’s a Democrat, then I’m Batman.”
In an interview, Blankenship argued that the Democratic Party is not authentic and that he is the candidate who most resonates with the people of West Virginia.
“Basically, I hope to get the message across that when the people of West Virginia vote for a typical Democrat, they are voting for policies they don’t believe in,” he said. “That’s actually the reason they left the party in the first place. ”
In the Democratic primary, Elliott and Blankenship will face Marine Corps veteran and grassroots organizer Zach Shrewsbury. Jim Justice, the current governor and a wealthy coal operator, and Rep. Alex Mooney, a pro-Trump Republican, are vying for the Republican nomination.
To win, Blankenship must overcome the toxic atmosphere created by his highly publicized trial. Prosecutors have portrayed Blankenship as a micromanager who put profit over safety and argued his case using phone calls Blankenship secretly recorded in his Massey office. During those calls, Blankenship said a scathing internal safety memo must be kept confidential and would be a terrible document to turn up in legal discovery if a mine fatality were to occur.
Research has shown that worn and broken cutting equipment created a spark that ignited coal dust and methane gas. Broken and clogged water sprinklers caused what should have been a flare-up to become an inferno. Blankenship, an outspoken critic of then-President Barack Obama, and his defense team were ordered by a federal judge during his 2015 trial not to tell jurors that he was being prosecuted by Democrats.
Manchin was governor when Blankenship’s Massey Energy mine exploded. By the time the ex-CEO was sentenced to a year in prison, Manchin was a U.S. senator.
“No punishment is severe enough,” he said the day Blankenship was sentenced.
Blankenship still claims natural gas caused the tragedy and blamed Obama’s Mine Health Safety Administration for changes in ventilation prior to the explosion. Prosecutors noted that regulators would not allow the mine’s old ventilation standard because of a 2006 fire that killed two people at another Massey mine in West Virginia.
Blankenship, once one of Appalachia’s wealthiest men, has spent thousands of dollars on lawsuits claiming he was the victim of defamation and character assassination, all of which have been dismissed by courts — including the U.S. Supreme Court. Before running for office, Blankenship spent millions supporting GOP candidates, including nearly $3.5 million in 2004 to help defeat a Democratic incumbent and become the first Republican to serve on the Supreme Court in more than 80 years. to choose the state. His brazen funding of West Virginia Republicans inspired a John Grisham novel, “The Appeal.”
So far, West Virginia voters have given no indication that they are taking him seriously as a candidate.
“The Republicans rejected him, so I’m pretty sure the Democratic Party will easily reject him as well,” said Shrewsbury, whose grandfather was a miner.
Shrewsbury said he has no respect for Blankenship, adding that “he is not someone who should be in this race.” Shrewsbury and Elliott emphasize the importance of investing in green energy technology and criticize laws such as “Right to Work” that were passed by the supermajority of the Republican Party to weaken the power of unions.
“We have to fight for the worker, not the corporate store,” Shrewsbury said.
Manchin also has a tenuous relationship with Justice, likely the frontrunner in the Republican race. Justice, who owns the swanky Greenbrier Hotel and dozens of other businesses, was recruited by Manchin to run for governor as a Democrat before switching sides at a rally for Trump in 2017.
Justice’s mining companies have come under scrutiny for alleged safety violations and unpaid taxes, and he has also been sued by retirees from his coal companies over interruptions in prescription drug coverage.
Elliott said justice is not what West Virginia needs.
“He’s protecting coal, that’s what he’s going to say,” Elliott said. “Ask the miners who work for him how much he protects the miners.”
He said struggling people living in dying coal areas want realistic solutions.
“Look, there is room to protect the coal jobs that we have, but we also have to recognize that the world is changing and that we need to invest in ourselves, not just expect an outside industry – or the now is a mining industry or whatever – does that. Save us.”
Mindi Stewart, whose husband Stanley “Goose” Stewart worked at Upper Big Branch and survived the day of the disaster, said she and her husband don’t like Blankenship being given a platform.
Goose was about 300 feet (91 meters) inside the mine when it exploded. He attempted to revive some of his fallen colleagues and then covered their bodies with blankets, their faces obscured by soot.
Stewart said they were shocked when Blankenship decided to run as a Democrat. But she said they are starting to see it differently.
“We know he will run away every chance he gets and we know why he is running away,” she said. “We know, and I think he knows, that he will never be elected. Being found guilty ate him alive from the moment it happened.”