Former Massey Energy CEO and West Virginia Republican Senatorial candidate, Don Blankenship during a town hall on Jan. 18, 2018. AP Photo/Steve Helbe
Disgraced and once-imprisoned former West Virginia coal magnate Don Blankenship is hoping to occupy Senator Joe Manchin’s soon-to-be-vacated seat, as the long-time Democratic lawmaker retires in 2024. Having run unsuccessfully in 2018 as the GOP Senate candidate, and in 2020 as a candidate for the Constitution Party, this time, the Appalachian strip-mining baron, who once called himself “Trumpier than Trump,” is running as a Democrat.
Blankenship explained to WV News that he switched parties because of personal animus: the Republicans pushed false stories about him, according to his telling, and were not properly focused on his state’s opioid crisis. West Virginia has the highest rate of deaths from opioids in the country.
State Democrats did not cheer his........