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TIME TO WORRY: Blankenship Narrowly Edging GOP Rivals In Two Internal Polls

   DailyWire.com

In West Virginia, where GOP voters will choose their candidate for the Senate seat among Don Blankenship, a coal baron who was jailed for conspiracy to violate mine safety laws, Attorney General Patrick Morrissey, and Congressman Evan Jenkins, two internal campaign polls shockingly show Blankenship leading both other candidates.

One internal campaign poll conducted by one of the other candidate’s campaigns found Blankenship with 31% of the vote, Jenkins 28%, and Morrissey 27%; the poll conducted by the other non-Blankenship candidate showed Blankenship with 28%, Morrissey 27%, and Jenkins 14%. That second poll two weeks ago showed Blankenship with 14%, Morrissey 29%, and Jenkins 26%.

On Monday, President Trump, concerned that Blankenship would win the primary and lose in the general election to a Democrat, tweeted on Monday:

One West Virginia Senate campaign official told The Weekly Standard, “If it’s truly a two-point race, that Trump tweet is going to make a difference.”

Meanwhile, Blankenship has called Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell “cocaine Mitch” and attacked McConnell for creating jobs for “China people.”

Behind the scenes, both national parties are working feverishly to influence the voters; McConnell’s friends have spent over $1.3 million to defeat Blankenship; Democrats have spent at least $1.2 million to eliminate Jenkins from the race, as The Washington Examiner’s Al Weaver reported.

There is another serpentine possibility that Allahpundit noted at HotAir: that the two other candidates released the polls in order to galvanize their own voters into action. As Allahpundit wrote:

It could be, though, that the Blankenship “surge” is smoke and mirrors engineered by the other two candidates for their own advantage. Until these internal polls dropped, Blankenship appeared to be losing steam in the race, having slipped to third in several surveys. Silver theorizes that the poll above showing Morrisey behind Blankenship by just a point with Jenkins trailing far behind was a leak from Morrisey’s own campaign to signal to voters that the choice tomorrow is between him and Blankenship. The poll showing Jenkins in second, a point ahead of Morrisey, was probably leaked as a counterpoint by Team Jenkins, to suggest that the choice is actually between him and Blankenship.

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