ELECTION/GOP/SENATE/TRUMP PEOPLE: “President Donald Trump inserted himself into Tuesday’s [5-8-18] Republican Senate primary in West Virginia, urging voters to reject a scandal-scarred former coal executive whose apparent polling strength is stirring fears that he could cost the party a chance to pick up a seat from Democrats. In a tweet Monday [5-7-18], Mr. Trump said the former executive, Don Blankenship, ‘can’t win the General Election in your State….No Way! Remember Alabama.’ He then urged voters to choose one of two other Republicans in the race, U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins or the state’s attorney general, Patrick Morrisey. The winner of Tuesday’s GOP primary will run in November against Sen. Joe Manchin, who is considered one of 2018’s most vulnerable Democrats. Mr. Trump’s comments suggested a last-ditch effort to salvage a primary race that Republicans in Washington thought had swung to either Mr. Jenkins or Mr. Morrisey. Last week, the two spent most of a prime-time Fox News debate attacking each other instead of seeking to undercut Mr. Blankenship, who served a year in prison on a charge of conspiring to violate mine-safety laws after 29 people died in a 2010 explosion at a coal mine operated by his Massey Energy Co. Mr. Blankenship, for his part, used the debate to cast himself as an antiestablishment outsider.”
-Siobhan Hughes, “Don Blankenship Draws Swipe From Trump Before West Virginia Vote,” The Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2018 4:22 pm