Failed GOP Senate primary candidate Don Blankenship has Republicans worried his plan to run a third-party bid could be a spoiler in November's high-stakes Senate race, The Hill reported.
National Republicans believe incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is vulnerable in the deep-red state, but Blankenship's promised revenge run could upset the apple cart.
But experts do not see an easy path ahead for the former coal CEO who spent about a year in jail for conspiring to violate mine safety standards after 29 miners were killed in an explosion at a mine his company operated.
"He would have a tremendously uphill fight to get on the ballot given the state's laws," an unnamed GOP strategist told The Hill.
There is a question he can even run.
Steven Allen Adams, a spokesman for West Virginia's GOP Secretary of State Mac Warner, said Blankenship is barred from running as a third-party candidate.
"West Virginia does have a sore losers, sour grapes law," he told The Hill. "We feel the law is pretty clear."
Others argue there is wiggle room in the law.
"The code is not clear . . . In my mind there's no clear answer short of a state's Supreme Court decision," Robert Bastress, a professor at West Virginia University College of Law, told the news outlet.
According to The Hill, West Virginia's state legislature passed more straightforward "sore loser" language in March, but the updated rules will not take effect for 90 days.
Another portion of the code, which the secretary of state's office cited in the election guide, notes candidates cannot have been registered with another party within 60 days before filing. Blankenship moved to change his party affiliation on Monday, according to the secretary of state's office.
Republicans publicly fretted a Blankenship primary victory would sink their chances of beating Manchin, and The Hill reported the previously little-known Mountain Families PAC spent more than $1.3 million in ads against Blankenship during the state's primary.
New fundraising disclosures released Sunday showed the group was funded in its entirety by the Senate Leadership Fund, a GOP outside group with deep ties to McConnell, The Hill reported.
Manchin was not gloating about the GOP infighting, however.
"Everybody has the right to run," Manchin said, The Hill reported. "I've just go to run my race."
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