Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy and 2020 Constitution Party presidential nominee, has filed to run for the United States Senate seat in West Virginia, according to local media citing the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office.
Blankenship shared with West Virginia media outlet WV News that he intends to seek the Democratic Party’s senate nomination. He said he joined the Democratic Party roughly “eight months ago or more.” The seat Blankenship seeks is currently held by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who announced late last year that he would not seek reelection.
In the interview, Blankenship stated that his primary motivation for running is to help West Virginia residents recognize that “our enemy is the government and the politicians” and emphasized that “which party you’re in doesn’t really matter.” According to Blankenship, people are being led to believe there is a fight between left and right to distract from more significant issues.
Readers can access the full article by Charles Young on the WV News website here.
Blankenship has run for office twice before, once as the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party and another as a member of the Republican Party.
In 2020, Blankenship was chosen by the Constitution Party as their presidential nominee, securing the nomination on the second ballot with 57.2% of delegate votes. Delegates selected William Mohr, Chair of the U.S. Taxpayer’s Party of Michigan, as his running mate.
The nomination of Blankenship, who had served time in federal prison due to convictions related to the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, generated controversy within some state party affiliates. As a result, two state parties distanced themselves from Blankenship, selecting their own presidential candidates. The Virginia party initially endorsed Libertarian Justin Amash before ultimately backing Sheila “Samm” Tittle who failed to make the state ballot, while the New Mexico party nominated Tittle, who would appear on the New Mexico general election ballot.
Blankenship would ultimately appear on 18 state ballots and garner 60,148 votes, as reported by the Federal Election Commission following the 2020 election cycle.
Prior to that, Blankenship ran as a Republican for the seat held by Senator Joe Manchin, securing 27,478 votes in the Republican primary for 20% of the total. He lost to Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who, in turn, was defeated by Manchin in the general election.
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