Ex-coal CEO Don Blankenship couldn't win a Senate seat with the GOP. He's trying now as a Democrat

Former West Virginia coal executive Don Blankenship has filed paperwork to run for Joe Manchin's U.S. Senate seat

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Former West Virginia coal executive Don Blankenship, who lost by a wide margin when he ran for a U.S. Senate seat as a Republican in 2018, filed paperwork Friday to run as a Democrat for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

Blankenship’s entrance into this year's race came a day before the deadline for political candidates to file for the May 14 primary. The state Democratic Party in the deeply red state immediately distanced itself from Blankenship, who has two primary challengers.

“I don’t care what letter he has after his name this week, Don Blankenship is not a Democrat and does not represent the values of our party,” West Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Mike Pushkin said in a written statement.

Blankenship finished third among six candidates in the 2018 GOP Senate primary with 20% of the vote. He then lost a bid to run in the general election as a third-party candidate. Manchin won a full second term that fall, defeating current Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Manchin announced in November that he won’t seek reelection.

Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, served a year in federal prison after being found guilty of conspiring to violate safety standards, a misdemeanor, at West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine before a 2010 explosion that killed 29 men. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Blankenship to review the conviction.