Don Blankenship Campaign Advertisement

Submission 10,211

Overview

Don Blankenship Campaign Advertisement refers to a viral campaign advertisement promoting and staring Republican senatorial candidate Don Blankenship. Online, people mocked the video for Blankenship's use of racially insensitive terminology and the nickname "Cocaine Mitch," which is how refers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as well as the production value and editing of the video.

Background

On May 3rd, 2018, the Vimeo ^[5] account for Don Blankenship for U.S. Senate uploaded a campaign ad. The video features Blankenship accusing Mitch McConnell of receiving money from his "China family" and having McConnell's "China people" run attack ads against Blankenship. He also refers to West Virginians as "West Virginia People" and McConnell as "Cocaine Mitch."

That day, Twitter ^[1] user @LPDonovan tweeted the Don Blankenship campaign ad with the caption "What in the world did I just watch." The post (shown below) received more than 8,200 retweets and 25,000 likes in 24 hours.

Developments

Online Reaction

Following the release of the video, people responded by mocking Blankenship's word choice and the production value of his video. Twitter^[2] user posted an image of Charlie from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia with the caption "is West Virginia people racist." The post (shown below, left) received more than 430 likes in 24 hours.

Twitter^[3] user @RobertMaguire tweeted the video with the comment, "Don Blankenship doubles down on phrases like 'China people' and 'Cocaine Mitch' in new ad that also features his undeniable charisma and charm." The post (shown below, center) received more than 260 retweets and 1,100 likes.

Twitter user @danldixon tweeted,^[4] "Really excellent that the entire world is now a tim and eric sketch, what a cool outcome." The tweet (shown below, right) received more than 260 retweets and 1,100 likes in 24 hours.

Redditor ^[11] Firerhea published the video in the /r/NotTimeAndEric subreddit and, like @danldixon, implied that the ad resembled a sketch on The Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. The post received more than 250 points (95% upvoted) and 50 comments.

That day, Twitter^[10] published a Moments page on the reaction to the video.

Blankenship's Response

On May 1st, Blankenship released a statement^[8] on why he referred to McConnell as "Cocaine Mitch." It said:

"Mitch McConnell and his family have extensive ties to China. His father-in-law who founded and owns a large Chinese shipping company has given Mitch and his wife millions of dollars over the years.

"The company was implicated recently in smuggling cocaine from Colombia to Europe, hidden aboard a company ship carrying foreign coal was $7 million dollars of cocaine and that is why we’ve deemed him 'Cocaine Mitch.'"

Blankenship, already at the center of a controversy^[6] for referring to McConnell's father-in-law, a shipping company chairman named James Chao, as "a wealthy Chinaperson," defended his use of the phrase. He said, "This idea that calling somebody a ‘Chinaperson,’ I mean, I’m an American person. I don’t see this insinuation by the press that there’s something racist about saying a ‘Chinaperson.’ Some people are Korean persons, and some of them are African persons. That’s not any slander there.”^[7]

McConnell's Response

Senator McConnell told Fox News, ^[9] "My father-in-law is an American, who lives in New York, works in New York. And I don't have any comment about ridiculous observations like that."