Blankenship Predicts Victory In West Virginia Primary

A defiant Don Blankenship (R) “shrugged off President Trump’s last-minute plea for Republican primary voters to reject his insurgent Senate candidacy — and flatly predicted it would fail to halt his momentum,” Politico reports.

“On the final day of the dramatic West Virginia campaign, the coal baron and ex-prisoner seemed unbothered by the president’s foray into the contest, arguing that voters would see through it as the latest ploy in an establishment-led effort aimed at keeping him from winning the nomination.”

Playbook: “The obvious question here is what does Mitch McConnell, the NRSC and the constellation of big-money outside groups that support Senate Republicans do if Blankenship wins. It’s very difficult to see McConnell supporting Blankenship after he called the majority leader’s wife’s family ‘China people,’ and suggested the Kentucky Republican has mixed allegiances because of Elaine Chao’s family’s heritage. But knocking Sen. Joe Manchin out of the Senate has always been part of the GOP plan to keeping — or expanding — their majority in the Senate. “