President urges West Virginia voters to reject Senate contender
WASHINGTON — President Trump intervened Monday in the West Virginia Republican Senate primary, pleading with voters a day before the election to oppose former mine operator Don Blankenship and suggesting that his nomination would lead to a replay of the party’s embarrassing loss last year in Alabama.
Trump’s decision to speak out on the race came after Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whom Blankenship has targeted in a deeply personal manner, urged the president in a telephone call to weigh in against the controversial former coal executive, according to a Republican official familiar with the conversation.