Don Blankenship

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“	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.	„
	~ Don Blankenship

Donald Leon Blankenship (born March 14, 1950) is an American business executive and political candidate. 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 an explosion at one of his coal mines (Upper Big Branch Mine) in 2010, costing him his position.

Biography

Early life

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 ran a convenience store and gas station 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.

Business career

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.

Upper Big Branch Mine explosion

On April 5, 2010, an explosion at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine killed 29 miners. It was the worst U.S. coal mining disaster since 1970, when an explosion killed 38 in Hyden, Kentucky. NPR reported Massey executive Stanley Suboleski as saying that MSHA-ordered airflow changes, made hours before the explosion, "were changes the company opposed but complied with anyway."

In March 2013 Blankenship was directly implicated in conspiring to skirt safety regulations when a former Massey Energy official accused Blankenship of conspiring and plotting to hide safety violations from federal safety inspectors. The implication was that Blankenship would order his officials to warn mine operators when the federal inspectors were coming for "surprise" visits, and to quickly cover up any safety violations.

Blankenship was convicted of a single misdemeanor charge of conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards and went on to serve a one-year prison sentence.

Other controversies

Blankenship has been accused of withholding knowledge of pollution. According to court papers read by Geoff Goodell at Rolling Stone, groundwater pollution from coal slurry injection by Massey Energy was contaminating wells around his home.

Blankenship had a water line built to his home from a nearby town. According to the accusation, Blankenship did not offer to provide uncontaminated water to any of his neighbors, and failed to inform them of any problem.

Political career

Blankenship is an active participant in West Virginia politics. He ran against for the U.S. Senate as a Republican against incumbent Democratic Senator Joe Manchin during the 2018 mid-terms, but lost. During the Republican primary campaign, Blankenship received criticism for calling Mitch McConnell's wife Elaine Chao a "China person."

Blankenship has also voiced his support for Donald Trump, most notably Trump's proposed border wall. He has also described himself as "Trumpier than Trump".

Blankenship launched his campaign for the Constitution Party nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election in October 2019 during a meeting of the Constitution Party national committee. He was nominated for president at the virtual Constitution Party Convention on the second ballot on May 2, 2020, with William Mohr as his running mate. Blankenship and Mohr went on to receive 59,924 votes.