West Virginia is an interesting case. Go back to the
United Mine Workers, and this state was deep blue, pro-union. The biggest rift between Democrats and West Virginians is the environmental concerns about coal. Most people see the Democratic party as being unfriendly to coal, and they're right. Coal is a dying industry, even without environmental concerns.
West Virginia is pretty much the opiate crisis center of White America, and I think that adds to the feeling that employment is desperately needed to counteract the addiction problem. You have a region that, without coal, is severely economically depressed with a large population of addicts. The state needs tax money and revenue.
The candidacy of Don Blankenship seemed to be a case of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend'. A couple of years ago I read a book about Blankenship,
The Price of Justice. Reading it was an instructive introduction to his venality. The fact that 1 out of 5 Republicans in West Virginia would vote for a man whose shoddy practices were contributory in the deaths of 29 miners is indicative of an 'us against the world' attitude.
A friend of mine was disappointed that Blankenship lost, feeling that he would have been the weaker candidate against Joe Manchin in the fall. I'm happy he lost. The last thing we need is to add more fuel to the fire of crazy.