President Donald Trump on Monday had a message for West Virginians ahead of Tuesday's GOP Senate primary in that state: You can vote for Rep. Evan Jenkins or Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, but Don Blankenship would spell doom for Republicans.
"Remember Alabama," Trump warned, referring to Roy Moore's victory in last year's Alabama GOP Senate primary last year despite sexual misconduct allegations, only to lose the general election in a historic upset to Democrat Doug Jones.
Republicans believe they have a real chance to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin in November, but the coal executive Blankenship, who spent a year in prison for a fatal mine mishap years ago, would sink those chances, they believe.
Further, Blankenship is thumbing his nose at establishment Republicans, calling out Sen. Mitch McConnell and recently calling the Senate majority leader "cocaine Mitch."
Republicans fear recent polling that shows Blankenship is surging.
However, a late April poll showed Blankenship 12 points behind Morrisey, though 39 percent were still undecided in that GOPAC survey.
Blankenship shrugged off Trump's attack, saying in a statement that the president "is a very busy man and he doesn't know me and he doesn't know how flawed my two main opponents are in this primary," the Daily Beast reports.
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