CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship must go to court if he wants to be the Constitution Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate in the November election.
On Thursday, West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner denied Blankenship’s candidacy after determining his filing violated the state’s “sore loser law,” which prohibits candidates who lost primary campaigns from running for the same offices in general elections.
“According to the plain language of the law, which controls my decision, a candidate who loses the primary election cannot use the nomination-certificate process to run another campaign in the general election,” Warner said in his announcement.
“Any other decision would be contrary to the law.”
In May, Blankenship unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
On June 5, a new law took effect that was written to address ambiguities in the existing sore loser law.
Regarding the denial, Deputy Secretary of State Steve Connolly said:
“We wouldn’t have made this decision if we weren’t confident. We have taken painstaking efforts to ensure that the process has been followed throughout.”
The denial came two days after Blankenship filed to run as a candidate from the Constitution Party and indicated his campaign planned to challenge the “sore loser” law if blocked from running.
“There was a law in place at the time of the primary and that law would be the one they have to depend on which is extremely flawed,” Blankenship said.
Ahead of the filing, Blankenship’s campaign collected more than 11,000 signatures in support of his candidacy. About 7,100 signatures appeared valid before full vetting from county clerks, Connolly said.
“The easy route would have been to say, ‘No, you can’t solicit signatures. No, you can’t file your certificate. No’ throughout the process all along and base that on the plain language of the state code,” Connolly told MetroNews “Talkline” on Thursday.
“But we wanted to afford due process to Mr. Blankenship and to the Constitution Party in the event the law would be struck down by a court, so we are perfectly positioned at this point to react to what we hope is an expedited legal process.”
Deputy Secretary of State, Steve Connolly, joins @HoppyKercheval to announce his Office’s decision to not allow @DonBlankenship to run for Senate in the November general. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIAoe1 pic.twitter.com/2PaajmU4EJ
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) July 26, 2018
Blankenship finished third in the May Republican primary behind state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the nominee, and 3rd District Congressman Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.).
Because of Morrisey’s election conflict, Marc Williams with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP will represent the state in upcoming litigation.
“I can’t stress the seriousness of this issue,” Connolly said.
As of Thursday, just more than 100 days remained until the Nov. 6 general election.
Blankenship released the following statement Thursday evening:
“The establishment politicians are at it again. This time they think they can control who can and who can not run for elected office. The Republican Party thinks you should be allowed to run for office, but only if you move from another party to theirs (or the co-establishment Democrats.) The Republicans won’t allow you to move from their party to another one and run for office.
“We are confident that the denial of my certificate of announcement will be overturned, and I am looking forward to running a spirited campaign for U.S. Senate as the only candidate who is not supported by Planned Parenthood and opiate drug distributing companies.”
Blankenship added in a second statement he will file a court claim next week against the “sore loser” law.