BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — From the outside, it’s easy to dismiss the candidacy of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

The low-budget ads. The racist comments. The fact that he served a year in prison in connection with a deadly mine explosion and is still on probation.

All would seem to discount the man running for the Republican Senate nomination in West Virginia against the state’s attorney general and a sitting congressman.

And now, less than 24 hours before the primary, President Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to tell the people of West Virginia — who backed him by a 42-point margin in 2016 — that Blankenship would be unelectable in November.

That comes after an onslaught of spending against Blankenship from an outside group with ties to national GOP strategists called Mountain Families PAC. National Republicans have long feared that a Blankenship nomination would imperil the party’s chances of unseating Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin III this year.