Background and career
Donald Leon Blankenship (born March 14, 1950) is an American businessman. He was chairman and CEO of the Massey Energy Company—the sixth-largest coal company (by 2008 production) in the United States—from 2000 until 2010 when an explosion at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine resulted in the death of 29 workers. He served one year in prison for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards. Blankenship has frequently spoken out about politics, the environment, unions, and coal production. In the 2018 United States Senate election in West Virginia, Blankenship lost a three-way Republican primary to Patrick Morrisey. Citing false information and dirty politics for his loss and claiming a personal unwillingness to quit, Blankenship attempted to run as the Constitution Party nominee, but was unable to get on the ballot and later endorsed Morrisey. In January 2024, he declared his candidacy as a Democrat for the United States Senate seat held by retiring Senator Joe Manchin in the 2024 election, losing the primary election to Glenn Elliott. Blankenship was also the Constitution Party's nominee in the 2020 United States presidential election.
Blankenship was born in Stopover, Kentucky, and raised in Delorme, West Virginia. His father served in the Korean War and his mother, Nancy McCoy, was a member of the McCoy family. The two divorced soon after Blankenship was born, and with the money from her divorce settlement Blankenship's mother opened a convenience store and gas station which she ran for 40 years. After graduating from Matewan High School in Matewan, West Virginia, in 1968, Blankenship earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Marshall University in 1972 in three school years, having worked as a coal miner during summertime. Blankenship is certified as a public accountant. In 2002, he was inducted into the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' Business and Industry Hall of Fame. Blankenship has also been included in the Tug Valley Mining Institute Hall of Fame.
Blankenship joined Massey Energy subsidiary Rawl Sales & Processing Co., in 1982. He went on to serve Massey Energy in a number of capacities. He was promoted to president of Massey Coal Services, Inc. (1989–1991), then president and chief operating officer from 1990 to 1991. In 1992, Blankenship was named president, chairman of the board of A.T. Massey. He is the first non-Massey family member to be in charge of the company. When A.T. Massey was spun off from Fluor Corporation as Massey Energy in 2000, Blankenship became the newly independent company's chairman and CEO. On December 3, 2010, Blankenship announced that he was retiring as CEO at the end of the year and would be succeeded by Massey President Baxter F. Phillips Jr. Blankenship had a reputation for resistance to spending money, willingness to litigate for contract difficulties, and personally going into mines to persuade workers to abandon union organizing efforts. In a 1980s documentary, he said, "It's like a jungle, where a jungle is survival of the fittest. Unions, communities, people—everybody's gonna have to learn to accept that in the United States you have a capitalist society, and that capitalism, from a business standpoint, is survival of the most productive." In 1996, Blankenship was elected to the board of directors of engineering and construction company Fluor Corporation. He also serves as a director of the Center for Energy and Economic Development, a director of the National Mining Association, Mission West Virginia Inc, and was on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce board of directors. Blankenship was paid $17.8 million (~$25.9 million in 2025) in 2009, the highest in the coal industry. It was a $6.8 million raise over 2008, and almost double his compensation package in 2007. Blankenship also received a deferred compensation package valued at $27.2 million (~$39.6 million in 2025) in 2009. In 2011, Blankenship incorporated McCoy Coal Group, a coal company in Kentucky (not to be confused with the James River Coal Company subsidiary McCoy-Elkhorn Coal Corp). McCoy has yet to seek mining permits.
Blankenship is an active participant in West Virginia politics. During a speech at the Tug Valley Mining Institute on November 20, 2008, Blankenship called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Harry Reid and former Vice President Al Gore "crazies" and "greeniacs." He has spoken out against media coverage and what he calls false attacks by liberal media. He has also said "the truth needs to be told about what happened at the Upper Big Branch coal mine" on the basis that a single individual from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration was chosen to investigate the disaster.
Citing his displeasure with federal handling of the coal industry, and his longtime criticisms of the condition of West Virginia politics in general, Blankenship ran for U.S. Senate in the 2018 Senate election, challenging incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin. His television ads were aimed at "getting the truth out" about the Upper Big Branch explosion and "exposing the government cover-up." The ads further claimed Blankenship had documents showing that the MSHA Upper Big Branch internal report was falsified and that the company was forced by the MSHA to use a defective ventilation system. He also expressed a belief that Donald Trump's proposed Mexico-United States border wall in conjunction with ending sanctuary cities would help stop drug trafficking. Blankenship said he was "Trumpier than Trump" but that the establishment was misinforming him because they did not want him "to be in the U.S. Senate and promote the president's agenda." The national Republican leadership and allied groups made statements and ran ads against Blankenship, and the day before the Republican primary, Trump posted a tweet urging voters to vote for either of Blankenship's major primary opponents, Evan Jenkins and Patrick Morrisey, because Blankenship would not be competitive in the general election. Trump's tweet came in the wake of reporting that internal Republican polling had shown a surge in Blankenship's support among likely primary voters. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom Blankenship harshly criticized in his campaign, reportedly urged Trump to express opposition to Blankenship. During the Republican primary campaign, Blankenship received criticism for calling McConnell's wife Elaine Chao a "Chinaperson." After Patrick Morrisey won the primary, Blankenship reentered the race as the nominee of the West Virginia Constitution Party. Throughout his campaign he made a claim that the Upper Big Branch explosion was caused by the negligence of Mine Safety and Health Administration officials. In the wake of his unsuccessful campaign, Blankenship sued numerous media organizations and individual journalists, alleging defamation, false light, invasion of privacy, and civil conspiracy because they misstated he was a "felon" after being convicted and served one year in prison for a federal criminal conspiracy offense when it was actually classified as misdemeanor; the case was dismissed at the federal district court level and that decision was affirmed on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on February 22, 2023. In October 2023, the United States Supreme Court declined to overturn that ruling.
On January 26, 2024, Blankenship announced that he would run for Manchin's Senate seat again that year, this time as a Democrat. Manchin had announced his retirement in November 2023. The West Virginia Democratic Party almost immediately disavowed his candidacy, with chairman Mike Pushkin stating that "Blankenship, or as he'll forever be known, federal prisoner 12393-088," does not represent the party's values. Blankenship himself has indicated that he would not join the Senate Democratic Caucus if elected. Blankenship finished third and last in the Democratic primary, winning 18.5% of the vote and placing behind Zach Shrewsbury and winner Glenn Elliott. He carried Gilmer, Logan, and Mingo counties.
