Kudos to a Courageous Lt. Governor

Republican West Virginia Lt. Governor Craig Blair recently lost his primary election. That’s no fun, but he then did something courageous: Blair called out the dark money interests that had viciously smeared him and the 340B Drug Discount Program.

In an op-ed in the State Journal Blair wrote: “Big pharmaceutical companies hate [340B] because it cuts into their enormous profits. Because I defended it, an organization with ties to Big Pharma spent money opposing me and now they are trying to take a victory lap and scare other Republicans into abandoning their support for this program. They are wrong, and my fellow Republicans should not listen.”

Specifically, a shady group called Stand for Us flooded the zone with ads attacking Blair for supporting… taxpayer funded health care for illegal immigrants. Wait, what?  The 340B program is not funded by taxpayers, but rather Big Pharma. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with immigration, illegal or otherwise.

 “Republican officeholders and candidates should not be intimidated into softening their support for 340B based on smoke-and-mirror tricks conjured up in Washington, D.C., board rooms by consultants who will do anything for a check,” he wrote.

Blair then delivered the ultimate rebuttal. West Virginia’s popular Republican Governor Jim Justice is a strong 340B champion and won his primary for a US Senate seat.

“Governor Justice’s support should refute the notion that support for 340B is somehow unconservative or problematic,” wrote Blair. “Under his leadership, West Virginia became one of the latest handful of states to take action to protect 340B.”

So, Republicans around the country have a choice:  they can be intimidated by lies (*cough* Glenn Youngkin *cough*) funded by a shady group that doesn’t disclose its source of funds, or they can follow the path of a conservative like Jim Justice and stand up to the pharmaceutical companies.

While he may have lost his primary, we congratulate Lt. Gov. Blair for standing up for the truth and calling out the sleazy dark money campaign against him and 340B.