MORGANTOWN — The Don Blankenship for President committee announced Thursday that the Constitution Party has named former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship as its nominee for U.S. President.
Blankenship said in the announcement, “I am running for president to let people know how dire the American situation is and what must be done to fix it. We cannot survive as a country if we do not stop the Republican and Democrat nonsense.”
Blankenship declared his candidacy last November when he filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, stating then he was running as a candidate for the Constitution Party.
Blankenship announced a plan called The Third Way Plan for America built on three principles: equality, ethics, and exactness.
The announcement says Blankenship still calls West Virginia home but spends a lot of his time in Nevada. He has two grown children and five grandchildren.
Blankenship ran for U.S. Senate as a Republican in 2018, coming in third in the GOP primary to winner Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and runner-up Rep. Evan Jenkins. Blankenship tallied 19.97% of the votes compared to Morrisey’s 34.9% and Jenkins’ 29.21%.
He then switched to the Constitution Party and tried to run as its candidate, but was barred by the secretary of state under the “sore loser law,” which prohibits a candidate who fails to win a party nomination from trying again under a different party. He challenged that action but the state Supreme Court ruled against him.
Blankenship spent a year in federal prison for a misdemeanor charge of conspiring to violate federal mine safety laws following the 2009 Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 miners.
Massey has blamed the Mine Safety and Health Administration for the explosion, saying it was caused by a freak release of natural gas. In January, a federal judge denied Massey’s petition to overturn the conviction.
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