Don Blankenship loses West Virginia GOP Senate primary

Don Blankenship.
(Image credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

He got the most attention, but that didn't translate to a win for Don Blankenship; the former coal executive and ex-convict came in third in Tuesday's West Virginia Republican Senate primary race.

Several news outlets project that the state's attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, has won, with Rep. Evan Jenkins coming in second. Morrisey has 35 percent of the vote, compared to 29 percent for Jenkins and Blankenship's 20 percent. While conceding on Tuesday night, Blankenship said he "failed West Virginians" because he "didn't get it done," and warned that "the Republican Party needs to be careful about being hijacked."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.