Turns out we get to dust off the phrase "disgraced coal baron" once more: Notorious West Virginia Republican Don Blankenship announced he'll try to run for Senate under the fringe-right Constitution Party banner after losing the GOP primary to state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey earlier this month. However, West Virginia has what's known as a "sore loser" law that prevents primary losers from "recognized political parties" from turning around and running on the ballot line of a minor party, whose candidates have a later filing deadline of Aug. 1.
Blankenship says he intends to challenge the law in court, but he might not have much of a case. Other cases, such as one where a registered Democrat was precluded from running for county clerk as an independent, have upheld the law, and election law expert Rick Hasen says he thinks it’s “highly unlikely” Blankenship will prevail, though a write-in campaign is always possible.
But if Blankenship nevertheless surmounts the sore loser law, he could create a major headache for national Republicans in their quest to defeat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. Indeed, that's why the GOP establishment spent $1.4 million to defeat him in the primary via their Mountain Families PAC, which new FEC filings have unsurprisingly revealed was 100 percent funded by donations from the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. If he ends up on the ballot again, Blankenship's willingness to spend millions on ads could force the national GOP to devote even more resources to tearing him down to prevent him from playing spoiler.