By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
Their coal dust-scarred lungs have left them short of breath for years.
Now, National Black Lung Association President Gary Hairston and Kanawha County Black Lung Association President Jerry Coleman are short on hope.
“I’m worried to death,” said Hairston, 69, of Beckley said.
What worries them is the expectation that a Republican will take over the Senate seat held by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
Manchin’s announcement that he won’t run for reelection in 2024 in what has become deeply Republican West Virginia means miner advocates are losing one of the Senate’s most consistent supporters of miner health and safety measures.
When Hairston and Coleman eye the state’s Senate GOP field, they see two figures with whom they are all too familiar.