Primaries set midterm course for GOP

As West Virginians vote in a primary election Tuesday, President Donald Trump is warning them to steer clear of rogue Republican Senate candidate Don Blankenship. The businessman served a year in prison after a deadly explosion in 2010 at a coal mine he owned, and he has promoted himself as “Trumpier than Trump.” On Monday, Trump tweeted to West Virginians that Blankenship “can’t win the General Election in your State. … No way! Remember Alabama,” a reference to Roy Moore’s loss in a Senate election there amid a scandal over his dating teenage girls decades ago. The winner of the GOP Senate primary in West Virginia will challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin for a seat deemed vulnerable in the conservative state. Indiana, North Carolina, and Ohio also hold primaries Tuesday. In Ohio’s most-watched race, establishment candidate and state Attorney General Mike DeWine battles tea party conservative Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor for the Republican nomination to replace Gov. John Kasich, who reaches his term limit this year. In Indiana, Republicans will choose a contender to take on another vulnerable Democrat, Sen. Joe Donnelly, this fall. And Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., faces a formidable primary challenge in Mark Harris, a prominent Charlotte pastor who almost upset the incumbent congressman two years ago.