On December 3,2015, Blankenship was found guilty of one misdemeanor charge of conspiring to willfully violate mine safety and health standards in relation to the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion, and was sentenced to one year in prison.
33 Facts About Don Blankenship
2.
Don Blankenship has frequently spoken out about politics, the environment, unions, and coal production.
3.
In 2018, Don Blankenship lost a three-way Republican primary for the US Senate to Patrick Morrisey.
4.
Don Blankenship was born in Stopover, Kentucky, and raised in Delorme, West Virginia.
5.
Don Blankenship's father served in the Korean War and his mother, Nancy McCoy, was a member of the McCoy family.
6.
Don Blankenship has been included in the Tug Valley Mining Institute Hall of Fame.
7.
Don Blankenship went on to serve Massey Energy in a number of capacities.
8.
Don Blankenship was promoted to president of Massey Coal Services, Inc, then president and chief operating officer from 1990 to 1991.
9.
Don Blankenship is the first non-Massey family member to be in charge of the company.
10.
Massey was spun off from Fluor Corporation as Massey Energy in 2000, Don Blankenship became the newly independent company's chairman and CEO.
11.
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.
12.
In 1996, Don Blankenship was elected to the board of directors of engineering and construction company Fluor Corporation.
13.
Don Blankenship 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 US Chamber of Commerce board of directors.
14.
Don Blankenship was paid $17.8 million in 2009, the highest in the coal industry.
15.
Don Blankenship received a deferred compensation package valued at $27.2 million in 2009.
16.
In 2011, Don Blankenship incorporated McCoy Coal Group, a coal company in Kentucky.
17.
Don Blankenship has 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 US Mine Safety and Health Administration was chosen to investigate the disaster.
18.
Don Blankenship expressed a belief that Donald Trump's proposed Mexico-United States border wall in conjunction ending sanctuary cities would help stop drug trafficking.
19.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom Don Blankenship harshly criticized in his campaign, reportedly urged Trump to express opposition to Don Blankenship.
20.
Don 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.
21.
Don Blankenship 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.
22.
Don Blankenship later released statements urging Trump to avoid legislation enacting harsher punishment for coal mine supervisors that violate health and safety protocols, saying that "coal supervisors are not criminals", and that harsher laws would not improve mine safety.
23.
In 2016, Don Blankenship supported conservative advocacy groups to remove Democrats from the legislature.
24.
In 2018, at a Senate campaign town hall, Don Blankenship said that "climate change is probably a fact", but added that American-made climate change is not, arguing that China's increase in coal production is the reason.
25.
In June 2008, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that May was entitled to unemployment benefits because due to "the unrefuted evidence" that Don Blankenship had "physically grabbed" May, had thrown food after she brought back the wrong fast-food order, and tore a tie rack and coat hanger out of a closet after she forgot to leave the hanger out for his coat.
26.
In March 2013 Don Blankenship was directly implicated in conspiring to skirt safety regulations when a former Massey Energy official accused Don Blankenship of conspiring and plotting to hide safety violations from federal safety inspectors.
27.
Don 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.
28.
Don Blankenship called himself a "political prisoner", feuded with United States Senator Joe Manchin and the Mine Safety and Health Administration over the explosion, considered running against Manchin for the Senate, and called for a new investigation into the explosion.
29.
Don Blankenship had a water line built to his home from a nearby town.
30.
In 2004, Don Blankenship contributed $3 million to the "And For The Sake of the Kids" PAC, campaigning against the reelection of West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw.
31.
On January 15,2008, photographs of Don Blankenship vacationing on the French Riviera with West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Spike Maynard, while Massey had a case pending before that court, appeared in The New York Times.
32.
When pressed on the ad's alleged racism, Don Blankenship said that his ad was not racist because the Chinese are not a race.
33.
Don Blankenship was profiled in a 2005 West Virginia Public Broadcasting documentary, The Kingmaker.