In the coal fields of southern West Virginia, one of the biggest campaign issues is — unsurprisingly — the future of coal.

That’s the backdrop for one of the most contentious congressional races of the year, with Democrat and fierce organized labor advocate Richard Ojeda pitted against Republican Carol Miller, a champion of President Donald Trump’s agenda, for the open 3rd Congressional District seat in the House of Representatives.

Both candidates say they are strong supporters of the coal industry. But recent campaign disclosures show that the race has become a proxy for the longstanding struggle between mine owners and the workers who have risked their lives and health to extract billions of tons of the fossil fuel.

Ojeda, for his part, raised an unprecedented $1.4 million over the last fundraising quarter, bringing the cash in mostly through small-dollar donations. He rejects corporate money and receives support from the United Mine Workers of America, among other mine labor organizations.

Miller, in contrast, loaned her campaign $290,000 and relies on large donations from coal and natural gas executives, lobbyists, and attorneys, according to public disclosures. Her recent campaign finance statement reveals a laundry list of corporate-controlled PACs from the energy industry, particularly coal. Among the PAC donors are Coal PAC, Contura Energy PAC, and Alliance Coal PAC, which are funded largely by coal executives.

Other groups tied to coal executives have also weighed in with cash directed toward helping Miller get elected. America First Action, a Republican Super PAC funded by natural gas and coal interests, including Murray Energy chief executive Bob Murray, has spent nearly $700,000 in negative advertising against Ojeda. For its part, the National Mining Association, a lobby group for mine owners, supports Miller.

Powerful coal industry figures also appear on Miller’s list of individual donors, rounding out a picture in which one candidate is aligned almost exclusively with the forces of the coal industry who work in corporate offices, while the other draws his support from the associations of the workers who take on the dangerous jobs inside the mines themselves.

Miller’s Coal Company Lawyers

Among the individual donors to Miller’s campaign that can be found rubbing elbows in the executive suites of coal companies is Roger Nicholson, a longtime coal attorney. According to campaign finance disclosures, Nicholson gave Miller two contributions for a total of $1,250. Among coal mine workers, Nicholson is infamous for suing to block mine safety regulations that require companies to alert state inspectors of an accident and working to shield his previous employer, the International Coal Group, when it faced lawsuits from survivors of the Sago Mine explosion that trapped and killed a dozen miners in 2006.

Nicholson’s defense of coal companies at the expense of their employees extends into his political advocacy — sometimes in the immediate wake of tragedies. In 2010, 29 mine workers were killed in what has come to be known as the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, named for the site operated by the then-coal giant Massey Energy. Only months after the disaster, Nicholson wrote an email to coal executives, including those from Massey Energy, urging them to take advantage of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision — which opened up a flood of corporate campaign cash — to defeat several left-leaning politicians.