John -- The United Mine Workers Union (UMWA) just did something disgraceful: they endorsed a bought-and-paid-for, anti-labor millionaire over a coal miner’s daughter. 

And you know I don’t pull punches. So I’ll just say it: This is a sham.

I am a coal miners’ daughter. My family is a UMWA family. And I will not be silent and let my people be sacrificed.

This endorsement by the UMWA is a disgrace to the memory of my daddy and granddaddy, an affront to my hardworking neighbors and my whole community.

While the UMWA recognizes how coal company bankruptcies are scavenging coal communities, they’re literally backing the Big Bankers’ Betty, a daughter of a five-time felon convicted of political corruption -- someone with a proven anti-labor record, a 28% lifetime rating from the AFL-CIO.

Miners deserve a future where their work is valued and the benefits they fought for are not in jeopardy. They deserve our full support as our economy evolves, not a punch in the face by “the invisible hand” of a market that is actually for sale to the highest bidder. 

Capito takes money from coal barons to recite corporate talking points and legislates to protect execs in companies like Alpha Natural Resources, best known for paying their executives bonuses for stealing miner pensions. Capito has rolled back hard-fought protections and -- reciting those corporate talking points -- claims it will bring back coal jobs. She knows it won’t. 

So shame on union leaders for abandoning workers. 

This fight is not the red team versus the blue team. It is the creeping oligarchy of the millionaires and billionaires against the rest of us.

And only we can stop it. If you want someone in the U.S. Senate who will speak truth to power, someone who will NEVER sell out workers and the benefits they bled and died for, then you want me. 

Help me get there. 
 
Paula Jean 
 

NOTE: You can read my statement in full here.