Seems like West Virginia’s Democrats just can’t catch a break as Election 2024 bears down. First, room-temperature Democrat Joe Manchin announced he would be vacating the US Senate seat he’s held since 2010. Then, Trump enabler Gov. Jim Justice became (and remains) the distant frontrunner for Manchin’s old job. Soon, the downstream races began trending predictably MAGA red, dampening progressives’ hopes well ahead of the November general elections.
It’s so far been a rough haul for the Mountain State’s outnumbered and out-funded Dems. Add to those woes, the nagging charlatan’s charlatan that’s been parading as one of their own - a distraction few could conceptualize, let alone counter.
It was April 2010 when 29 coal miners perished at the Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal, WV, the worst such explosion in over 40 years. Four independent investigations found the company operating the mine, Massey Energy, was at fault. Then CEO, Don Blankenship, was found guilty of conspiring to violate safety standards, served one year in prison, and fined $250,000.
Released in 2017, the disgraced former executive declared as a partyline GOP candidate for the 2018 US senate race - the first of Blankenship’s three unsuccessful federal campaigns spread across an equal number of political parties. (Republican, Constitution and of late, Democratic.)
Blankenship lost the first two races by huge margins, and will most certainly continue that pattern come the May 14 Democratic primary. If there’s a God in heaven, West Virginians will have finally seen the last of the man who describes himself as “Trumpier than Trump”.
But while Blankenship’s corruption, delusions and worship of power are well established, West Virginia’s Democratic and union officials have nonetheless been forced to give air time and print space to distance him from their ranks.
In a statement issued just days after Blankenship filed as a Democratic candidate for the seat, United Mineworkers of America President Cecil E. Roberts made clear his disdain for Blankenship and his politics:
“Don Blankenship does not care about working families. He does not care one second about labor laws, health and safety laws, environmental laws – anything that can help ordinary people improve their lives, he is against it. I don’t agree with the positions Democrats have on several issues, but also don’t know a single Democrat in West Virginia or anywhere else who shares Don Blankenship’s worldview. If he’s a Democrat then I’m Batman.”.
When interviewed about Blankenship’s claims to candidate status, 2nd West Virginia Democratic Party Vice Chair, Sam Petsonk was similarly blunt:
“More than almost anyone, he created the monstrosity that is the intensely radicalized GOP of today. He made that bed, and he should have to lie in it. He will find no friend or favor among Democrats.”
Having endorsed Wheeling’s Democratic mayor, Glenn Elliott, Manchin has publicly sidestepped Blankenship’s latest bizarre antics. But the two have tangled before: Manchin was in the senate when the coal baron was found guilty, and stated then “no sentence is severe enough.”
West Virginia’s Democrats deserve better than having their proud boilerplate commandeered by a brazen pretender with coal dust all over his stock portfolio. Blankenship fell from their grace many years ago. Soon he’ll be off their ballots, too.
Don Rollins is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister in Jackson, Ohio. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2024
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