The 2018 midterms kick off in earnest on Tuesday, with voters heading to the polls for key primaries in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and North Carolina.
In West Virginia, Republicans Don Blankenship, Rep. Evan Jenkins, and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey are vying for a chance to take on Democratic incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin in November. Manchin is vulnerable in a deep-red state that Donald Trump won by 42 points in 2016, but he has a long political history in West Virginia.
Jenkins and Morrisey are seen as conventional candidates, but Blankenship — a former coal baron who spent a year in prison after an explosion at his mine killed 29 people — has upended the race. Blankenship has run ads claiming his conviction was a politically motivated attack by the Obama administration. He’s also launched a scorched-earth campaign against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, attacking him as a “Swamp Monster” and, bizarrely, “Cocaine Mitch.” He’s also hurled racist attacks referring to McConnell’s “China family.”
Trump weighed in on the race this week, urging voters to “Remember Alabama” and not vote for Blankenship because he can’t win a general election. But while Trump is hoping to avoid another Roy Moore situation, two internal polls from the West Virginia campaigns found Blankenship with a slight lead over Jenkins and Morrisey.
Richard Ojeda’s West Virginia primary win gives Democrats their best chance to turn coal country blue
Voters went to the polls at the Dallas Community Center on May 8, 2018, in Dallas, West Virginia. Jeff Swensen/Getty ImagesRichard Ojeda is projected to win the Democratic nomination in the race for West Virginia’s Third Congressional District, giving Democrats their best chance to flip a congressional seat in November in the state, which Donald Trump won in 2016 by 40 points.
The Third District is home to West Virginia’s coal country, and three in four voters there cast a ballot for Trump — more than any other part of the state. Yet Ojeda’s brand of populism resonates with working-class voters in the region, and his outspoken defense of West Virginia’s teachers earlier this year launched him into the national spotlight.
Read Article >4 winners and 2 losers from this week’s 2018 primary elections
The spring 2018 primary season began in earnest Tuesday, as voters in Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and North Carolina went to the polls. And overall, it was a consequential night of voting, but not a shocking one. In the highest-profile races, the attention-getting outsiders for the most part went down to defeat in favor of more mainstream choices.
For the Senate, we now know the Republican nominees for three key races, who will challenge three Democratic senators representing states Trump won. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin will face off with Republican state Attorney General Pat Morrisey in West Virginia, Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly will go up against Republican Mike Braun in Indiana, and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown will face Republican Rep. Jim Renacci in Ohio. These are all outcomes that the dubiously nicknamed “Cocaine Mitch” McConnell is happy with.
Read Article >Patrick Morrisey beats Don Blankenship to win West Virginia Senate GOP primary
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is the Republican Senate nominee. He’ll face Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in November. Tom Williams/CQ Roll CallWest Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey prevailed in Tuesday’s West Virginia Senate Republican primary election, holding off coal boss Don Blankenship and averting a disaster for the DC establishment.
Morrisey will now face Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in the 2018 general election, a top Republican target. It’s become something of a miracle the state still has a statewide Democrat at all, though Manchin has a long history within the state. But he’s in choppy waters. While it has a working-class Democratic history, West Virginia went for Donald Trump by 42 points and hasn’t gone for a Democrat in the presidential election since 1996.
Read Article >Coal baron Don Blankenship is standing trial after 29 people died in his mine
Don Blankenship Reuters/Michael Munden/GristOriginally published October 7, 2015, on Grist.
The autocratic, micromanaging, bludgeoning style that won throwback Appalachian coal baron Don Blankenship the ire of environmentalists, the fear of underlings, and the title “Dark Lord of Coal Country” from Rolling Stone may finally have caught up with him.
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