The Story:
On the Republican side, in the West Virginia Senate primary Tuesday, the state’s Attorney General, Patrick Morrisey, defeated a large field of candidates, notably Rep. Evan Jenkins and former coal company executive Don Blankenship.
On the Democratic side of the same primary, the incumbent US Senator, Joe Manchin, won easily over a challenge from his left mounted by Paula Jean Swearengin.
The Trump(ier) Factor:
Blankenship ran an improbable outsider campaign that allowed him to claim that he was “Trumpier than Trump.”
In a tweet, though, President Donald Trump stepped into the Republican primary on Monday morning, telling the voters that Blankenship “can’t win the General Election in your state” so that they ought to vote for either Jenkins or Morrisey. He got his wish.
The Thing to Know:
Morrisey’s wife, Denise, works for a DC headquartered lobbying firm, Capitol Counsel, which represents certain prescription drug companies, including Cardinal Health, which in turn has a fraught legal history in West Virginia. The Manchin campaign will surely invoke this relationship between the Morrisey family and Cardinal Health in the course of the coming campaign.
