Former Massey CEO Don Blankenship announces run for US Senate
By
Clement Daly
21 December 2017
Late last month, former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship announced his candidacy for the US Senate in West Virginia. Blankenship, who oversaw the deadly Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine disaster in 2010, will run against West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and US Representative Evan Jenkins in next year’s Republican primary. The winner will challenge incumbent Democratic Senator Joe Manchin in the November 6, 2018 election.
Blankenship headed Massey when the UBB mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia exploded on April 5, 2010, killing 29 coal miners. Blankenship is currently on supervised release from prison until May 9, 2018—the day after the primary election—after serving a year in prison on conspiracy charges to willfully violate federal mine health and safety standards and defraud the US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
The former coal baron has yet to provide any specific details of his campaign outside of his general support for corporate and environmental deregulation coupled with his embrace of Trump’s chauvinist and right-wing America First rhetoric.
When asked in an interview with WVVA-TV earlier this month what his first move in Washington would be, Blankenship answered: “Sit down with President Trump and others and make sure we know how we compare to other places in the world…We’ve got to take care of the people in the United States. Trump understands that, whether it’s the wall or illegal immigration or trade policy. But we have to move now if we have any chance of catching up.”
In a state dominated by the Democratic Party for the better part of the last century, Senator Manchin is now West Virginia’s last Democrat holding…