Posted on 05/21/2018 8:45:20 AM PDT by SMGFan
. Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who finished third in the West Virginia Republican Senate primary, plans to run for West Virginia Senate as a third-party candidate.
Blankenship announced on Monday he’d run as the Constitution Party nominee, Politico reported. He said he’s willing to challenge the state’s “sore loser” law that would prohibit him from running in the general election since he already lost a major party’s nomination.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey won the GOP nod May 8 to take on Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III in November. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race a Tossup.
National Republicans had opposed Blankenship's candidacy — with President Donald Trump even tweeting against him the day before the primary. Blankenship spent a year in prison for conspiring to violate mine safety standards at the Upper Big Branch Mine, where an explosion killed 29 people in 2010.
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Manchin thanks him..
How can he run if it’s against the law in WV? I keep seeing articles sounding the alarm that he’s going 3rd party and Manchin is guaranteed to hold the seat now, but my understanding is that WV law would prohibit Blankenship from running.
He may have a case in challenging the “Sore Loser Law.”
Has a sore loser law been challenged for a federal election? If Blankenship wins in court, that could have national repercussions. ai don’t think he’ll win, and would have to run as a writein a la Murkowski.
Since his candidacy hurts the republican and helps America's far-left enemies, an activist judge will side with this criminal. Corrupt socialists and corrupt globalists disgust me.
Hang draw and quarter this bastard. He must be getting money from Manchin. Any West Virginian who votes for thus manure heap of horse manure is stabbing
Trump in the back and helping that phoney snake Manchin get re-elected
wow. he’s not nearly as popular with the bitter enders around here as he was just a few weeks ago . . .
He’s a plant. I hope the WV voters see through him.
Just confirms the good judgment of the Republican voters of West Virginia.
In other words, he’s a Democratic plant.
What a beotch. Manchin must have approached and made him some promises if becomes the spoiler so Manchin get sent back.
Well you can now count WV a hold for the Demoncrats.
I absolutely suspected this from the get go.
An ex-con with the optics of a dissolute wino, he appears to be in it... to lose it ... for the GOP challenger by splitting the vote.
You can often tell a plant, as that person will run to the right (sometimes waaayy to the right) of the legitimate candidate, hoping to peel off disaffected conservatives with some newsy soundbites.
Dems do this because they cannot win on the issues, and they also use libertarians (and poser libertarians) to the same effect.
It's critically important to stay totally on-top-of such posers, and also to educate our conservative colleagues, friends, and relatives about the deceit.
Clearly to help the democrats. They may control the senate because of this trashy idiot.
This trash can rot in jail for all I care.
He’s a plant. I hope the WV voters see through him.
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Absolutely. We never seem to have a shortage of people running as “Vote splitters”.
The Dems will lose the W VA seat unless they pull a stunt like this. This guy is a certifiable nutcase.
As soon as he said “China people” I knew he was a phoney. Who uses such terminology? I’ve never heard that used by anyone, not even by those who enjoy hurling racial epithets at Asians.
This third party run just confirms my suspicions.
“You can often tell a plant, as that person will run to the right”
Yes, but he actually took the act too far, as he portrayed the dimbulb’s caricature of the right .. with his talk of ‘China people’ as an example.
The left never lets up on their attempts at tying conservatives to the nutjobs.
And with WV going for Trump, they would desperately love to prove to everyone that WV is nothing but hayseed hillbillies who would rather vote for a bigot who sides with Trump than a ‘sensible’ incumbent democrat.
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