Look at West Virginia, which holds its Republican Senate primary today. Candidate Don Blankenship, a disgraced coal baron who spent a year in jail after a mine explosion killed 29 workers, was reportedly trailing two respectable GOP rivals just over a week ago.
Then Blankenship, who calls himself “Trumpier than Trump,” uncorked a racist and demagogic jeremiad about Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and his Asian-American wife, Elaine Chao, who happens to be a member of President Trump’s Cabinet. Blankenship dubbed McConnell “Cocaine Mitch,” implying he profited from drugs once found aboard a ship owned by his father-in-law, whom Blankenship calls a “China person.