Do you remember crooked conservative Republican Don Blankenship? In 2018 he ran for the Senate as a Republican and was defeated, coming in a distant third. Now he’s running as a Democrat and will be defeated again. What you might remember about him was that when he was CEO of Massie Energy, the 6th largest coal company in the U.S., he was found guilty of willfully violating mining safety and health laws that caused the deaths of 29 miners. Although it was clear he should have gotten the death penalty, the death penalty isn’t for white billionaires and he only served one year in prison. An anti-union extremist, dirty-energy fanatic, racist and Trump supporter— he tried selling himself as “Trumpier than Trump”— the GOP was a much better fit for his politics. Trump stabbed him in the back on the day before the 2018 primary and urged MAGAts to vote for anyone else in the primary but him. In 2020, he ran for president on the Constitution Party line (which he bought) and received almost 60,000 votes.
Blue America has been following his criminal career since 2010 and we’ve endorsed Zach Shrewsbury in this race. Blankenship’s decision to jump into the race has made us want to redouble our efforts on his behalf. Please consider contributing to Shrewsbury's campaign here. Yesterday, Shrewsbury told me that “Don Blankenship is the epitome of what I stand against. An egotistical coal baron whose values that are anything for a dollar over the safety of others. His entry into this race only serves to show that this is literally the worker vs the company store.”
A resident of Nevada, he plans to self-fund his race; there is no faction of the West Virginia Democratic Party that supports him. “I would expect them to be very upset that I’m even in the race,” he admitted. In a statement yesterday, state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Pushkin said “Blankenship, or as he’ll forever be known, federal prisoner 12393-088, lost a previous race for US Senate when he ran as a Republican. He followed that up with a failed race for President running on the Constitution Party ticket. He’ll officially join the 3 time loser club when he’s rejected by voters, yet again, in the 2024 West Virginia Democratic primary... Since getting out of prison Don has been struggling to find a way to be relevant. This sad gimmick is just his latest effort to find a political lifeline. The West Virginia Democratic Party remains committed to supporting candidates who truly represent Democratic values and who will work to improve the quality of life for all West Virginians. Our party is focused on improving healthcare, supporting workers’ rights, strengthening mine safety, and guaranteeing reproductive freedom.”
Blankenship plans to change the Democratic Party: “I think the Democratic Party needs some leadership. You know, you look at what they’re doing, the policies they have are crazy. They’re never going to participate in the things that are needed to correct the country, so I’m going to try to pull them out of that doldrum and get the them to think about real issues... I will probably form my own caucus if I win called the America First caucus because neither the Republicans under McConnell nor the Democrats under Schumer are going to make the country better. The two political parties are basically criminal organizations and the Supreme Court has allowed them to act as political action committees. People think of them as part of the government, but basically they are given powers of a political action committee, they raise money by selling legislation and they raise money by selling foreign policy and they shouldn’t be allowed to do that.”