It’s rumored that Don Blankenship, the former Massey Energy CEO who spent a year in prison on a misdemeanor charge related to the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion that killed nearly 30 people, will run for U.S. Senate in 2024.
Meanwhile, former Republican member of the West Virginia House of Delegates Derrick Evans, who spent 90 days in prison for his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, announced this week that he’s running for Congress.
Blankenship has run for the Senate before, mainly using the race as a platform to air ads trying to rewrite history and distance himself from the Upper Big Branch explosion. Evans was remorseful and timid in front of a U.S. district judge, but he has spent most of his time since his sentencing hearing denying that he did anything wrong by participating in the attack on democracy in which a former president tried to hold onto power by summoning a mob, filling them with lies and turning them loose on the Capitol.
In a statement issued Friday, Evans said Jan. 6, 2021, is “a day to celebrate.” That’s pretty gross.
Evans, who resigned from the House of Delegates after he was identified as part of the riot through his own social media livestream, cannot seek state office because of his felony conviction. Really, neither Blankenship nor Evans, both sad men dedicated to revisionist history, have a prayer of winning a U.S. House or Senate seat. So, why not team up?
Joining up for a presidential ticket would get them the attention they want, which is what this is really all about. The bumper stickers pretty much write themselves: “Blankenship Evans 2024: We’re the real victims.” Or maybe, “Blankenship Evans 2024: You think you’ve got problems?” Perhaps something like “Blankenship Evans 2024: Not sorry, even though we sort of know we should be.” That’s kind of long-winded, though. Short and sweet might be better — something like “Blankenship Evans 2024: Less than meets the eye,” or “Why don’t you like us?”
It takes money to print those things, but surely Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., who is running for the U.S. Senate in 2024 and recently has been peppering constituents of the wrong district with campaign mailers, could hook Blankenship and Evans up. As the subject of two House ethics investigations, Mooney seemingly knows how to stretch campaign dollars in some unconventional ways.
It’d be more efficient for the people of West Virginia if Blankenship and Evans ended their surely doomed 2024 runs with one stone. Of course, if they really cared about wasting everyone’s time and money, they wouldn’t run in the first place.
