Right now?
Republicans are worried about their own guy…
Not Democratic Senator Joe Manchin….
Democats couldn’t be happier….
Coal baron Don Blankenship, tarred by a mining accident that killed 29 people, is one of the three leading Republican contenders in the West Virginia Senate race — which is quickly becoming one of the most-watched campaigns of 2018. Washington Republicans are doing their best to stop him and Blankenship is fighting back in a campaign increasingly filled with nasty and personal insults.
Meanwhile, Democratic groups actually appear to be propping up Blankenship by targeting his competitors with a TV ad barrage leading up to the May 8 primary.
Come November, West Virginia will be a top Republican target. It’s become something of a miracle the state still has a statewide Democrat at all, though Democratic Sen. Joe 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.
“There’s a very strong anti-establishment sentiment in West Virginia, and there’s also an ‘it can’t get any worse’ sentiment,” Patrick Hickey, a political science professor at West Virginia University, told me. “We’re just trying to shake it up.”
Blankenship is the GOP primary’s wild card. The former Massey Energy CEO has an extensive personal fortune and deep West Virginia ties in the state’s marquee industry. Then again, he also has a criminal conviction, and many voters in the state will never forgive him for the Upper Big Branch mining accident…..
Note….
West Virginia Senate hopeful Don Blankenship is intensifying his offensive against Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, calling him “Cocaine Mitch” in a new TV ad released just over a week until the Republican primary.
“Blankenship… offers no context for the jab. But he may be referring to a 2014 report in the liberal Nation magazine that drugs were once found aboard a shipping vessel owned by the family of McConnell’s wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.”
Politicalwire…..
image…usnews.com
So this Blankenship dude is rich…doesn’t give a shit about worker safety…I don’t get it. He sounds like the perfect representation of the Republican Party.
Truth be told, he hasn’t been able to verify that he has strangled enough orphans yet to qualify as one of us. The tallies for Jenkins and Morrissey are more impressive.
Welcome back CG….
Don’t call it a comeback. I’ve been here for years…
The guy Went to jail for a mine incident that killed a batch of miners
He has issues with voters in the state….
The guy is also knocking McConnell HARD in public….
The poster guy for what the GOP don’t need for 2018
He’s a Trumpist candidate running against McConnell and the Republicans more than he is against Democrats.
He probably won’t win the primary, but he is evidence of just how much die-hard Trump supporters hate the Republican Party.
That means that it is very likely that Republicans will have a bad midterm, but it also does not mean that Democrats can expect to have little trouble beating Trump in 2020 in a traditional one on one race. In that way, it is not unsimilar to Democrats under Obama who showed no large-scale interest of supporting other Democrats besides him.
“He us evidence of just how much die hard Trump supporters hate the Republican Party”
Oh please. Die hard Trump supporters ARE the Republican Party in 2018.
Look at the primary in Ohio where Mike DeWine is railing against his opponent for being insufficiently pro Trump.
Blankenship is seen as a Todd Akin type. Likely to lose due to his big dumb mouth. WV Republicans have no quarrel with him being a die hard Trumper.
The brand is “Trump.” The brand is no longer “Republican.”
I wouldn’t classify DeWine or his opponent as Trumpists but those people are the ones they feel they need to appeal to.
That seems very clear, however long it remains.
So DeWine isn’t a Trumpist even as he brags that he is more pro Trump than his primary opponent?
Look I know this is tough for you take that mainstream conservative Republicans from your halcyon days of the early to mid 2000s are now big supporters of someone you personally detest but it has happened. The Republican brand is Trump and Trump is the Republican brand.
Not sure why it is that much of a problem Scott, Trump stands for every regressive policy those conservatives have ever proposed.
But, that Civil War has been won by Trump. The Republican Party is completely under his control and the Republicans in Congress are circling the wagons to protect their President.
Those Halcyon days may be long gone as far as so called mainstream Republicans are concerned, but some of the tactics remain. I am sure Trump and his Republican conspirators are considering starting an international incident to help them in the midterms (it worked so well for George W). Trump would love it and he would play his part well.
The GOP Civil War continues, eh?
Let’m Fight it out among themselves while Dem’s win….
You are ready to fight your own Civil War against the Berniecrats who will be re-branding your party. Enjoy the battle.
True that CG….
Hey CG?
The WV GOP US Senate GOP primary debate is currently running on Fox News
I don’t believe there is an actual “civil war” in the Republican Party, more like a minor guerilla War.
Trump owns the party ,while a small and dwindling group(known as neverTrumpers) of dissidents ocassionally make remarks of defiance.
Trumps support in the party is overwhelming and strong and ,despite what you read here?These neverTrumpers are like a mosquito on a lion.,easily swatted away.
I’ve been pounding away with the view that GOP LAWMAKERS in Congress HAVE gona ehir own way on several occasions….
That said?
I watched the opening of the WV GOP US Senate primary debate with Blankenship and two others that I don’t know the names and I had to turn the darn thing off….
One guy was going on and on about how he was Trump’s guy….
The other was defending his moving to WV from Jersey and of course Blankenship was trying to blame the feds for putting him in jail under false pretenses even after his company was responsible for coal mining deaths….
Ugh!
I find it laughable that CG claims Mike DeWine isn’t a Trumpist–he’s just appealing to those voters.
In a similar vein Martha McSally–someone probably considered by CG to be the “anti Trump” candidate in the AZ Senate primary– has supported the President 97% of the time in the House.
You’ve never seen a politician pander before?
I don’t know what the 97% thing relates to or where on PoliticalWire it was referenced, but it’s largely irrelevant. Trump is not a House Member and likely has no idea what 97% of the things they vote on even are.
No doubt on Trump….
Blankenship is a disgrace….
All three of them were ridiculous in the debate. Morrissey and Jenkins were such bitches to each other though, that it only benefits Blankenship,
Nonetheless, if Trump is as popular in West Virginia, as he might be, Manchin is going to have his hands full.
Manchin just has to win….
That’s All….
Morrissey was too embarrassed to admit he probably voted for Ted Cruz in the primary against Trump, while at the same time, Jenkins can skate around the fact that he supported John Kerry and Hillary Clinton in the past, and presumably voted for Obama, at least once.
It’s just all about Trump. West Virginia might be the only state where you had to have been “pure” not just in the general election but in the primary too.
Jenkins only endorsed Trump the day before the primary, when it was clear what the result would be. Still, Jenkins is probably the most electable of the three.
According to Political Wire,Jenkins is running a doctored fake ad showing Morrisey shaking hands with Hillary Clinton.
Jenkins deserves to lose this primary. I suppose I have seen examples in Cook County Democrat primaries of candidates being criticized for not supporting Obama in a primary, but nowhere to this level.
The entire argument against Morrissey seems to be that he did not endorse Trump in the primary. At no point, at no time, was Morrissey ever a “NeverTrumper)… unfortunately.
It’s just complete cult of personality related to Trump, and it’s a lot of chutzpah coming from Jenkins, (whom I would have been moderately rooting for in the primary before) as someone who only endorsed Trump a day before the primary and who was a card-carrying Democrat as late as 2013.
Guess what though? In the general election, Manchin is going to try to portray himself as a Trump buddy as well, as best he can.