The march through the primary calendar continues today, with the political world focused on three US Senate primaries in states that Trump won by significant margins in 2016. What makes the primaries in these states extra interesting is that all the Republican candidates are aiming for Senate seats currently held by Democrats.
You might assume that in each of these three states that Trump won—West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana—a strong Republican Party would be united around a promising challenger to the states’ incumbent Democratic Senators. But if you assumed this, you’d be very wrong.
Take West Virginia, where three Republicans are vying to take on incumbent Senator Joe Manchin. One of those Republicans is Don Blankenship, the coal baron convicted in the deaths of 29 West Virginia coal mine workers because of his negligence before the Upper Big Branch explosion in 2010. Instead of running away from his criminal record, Blankenship is running on it and promising that he’ll out-Trump even Donald Trump in the blow-up-the-system department.
“They are calling me a bigot, a moron, a despicable character and mentally ill,” says a Blankenship radio ad. “But even if all this is true I will do a better job than they have done.”
And guess what?
The Republican establishment is freaking out amid signs that Blankenship’s embrace of the crazy villain role is helping him take the lead over the other two Republican candidates, Representative Evan Jenkins and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
“President Trump had urged voters on Monday not to pick Blankenship as their nominee, and GOP leaders have started considering cutting ties with him if he wins,” the Washington Post reports.
Here’s a recent Blankenship ad, in which he calls Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “Cocaine Mitch” and talks about “Chinapeople.”
Jeet Heer explains that the rise of Blankenship “fits a familiar pattern of the Trump era, in which incendiary insurgents who are opposed by the Republican establishment do unexpectedly well.”
The problem, as shown by Roy Moore in Alabama, is that while the Republican primary base seems to love a crazy, blow-it-all-up villain character, general election voters often don’t.
Over in Indiana and Ohio, the races don’t feature a surging convicted criminal but are still dramatic.
The Indiana candidates are savaging each other over who’s been the most loyal (and disloyal) to Trump. And in Ohio, it’s a rich car dealer (who’s also a current member of Congress) versus another businessman. Trump says he prefers the rich car dealer.
These aren’t the only primaries happening tonight, but with the Democrats facing a much harder path to winning a Senate majority than a House majority this fall, wins by Blankenship and other unpalatable Republicans could help the Democrats retain seats in Trump territory that they otherwise might lose.
