Failed GOP primary candidate Don Blankenship announced plans to run for the Senate in West Virginia as a third-party candidate, Politico is reporting.
Blankenship, who finished third in this month's Republican Party primary, said he will run in the general election as the Constitution Party nominee.
"It is especially appropriate for me to be nominated by the Constitution Party given its staunch and uncompromising commitment to upholding the United States Constitution," Blankenship said.
But first he will have to overcome a "sore loser" law in West Virginia that stops losing candidates in a main-party primary from entering a general election as a candidate for another party, Politico reported.
Blankenship said he is ready to challenge the law in court, if necessary.
Trump had intervened in the GOP primary race, tweeting several times that Blankenship could not beat Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin and urging voters to back State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey or Rep. Evan Jenkins.
Morrisey was the eventual winner in the GOP primary.
In 2015, Blankenship was convicted of conspiring to violate safety rules at a mine he owned, where an explosion killed 29 miners in 2010. Blankenship served a year in prison.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.