--- title: Donald Trump Tells West Virginia Primary Voters to Stay Home description: Donald Trump pulled out all the stops pandering to coal miners in West Virginia Thursday, but he told them to skip voting in the primary canonical: https://time.com/4320484/donald-trump-west-virginia-primary-stay-home/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-06T00:41:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:20:02.194Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Tells West Virginia Primary Voters to Stay Home og:description: "Save your vote for the general election, OK?" og:url: https://time.com/4320484/donald-trump-west-virginia-primary-stay-home/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa6e9ab8c858d8d3/698892170b72e3238e6e9444/trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Tells West Virginia Primary Voters to Stay Home twitter:description: "Save your vote for the general election, OK?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa6e9ab8c858d8d3/698892170b72e3238e6e9444/trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Tells West Virginia Primary Voters to Stay Home > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 6, 2016 12:41 AM UTC  Donald Trump puts on a miner's hat while speaking during a rally on May 5, 2016 in Charleston, West Virginia. Donald Trump puts on a miner's hat while speaking during a rally on May 5, 2016 in Charleston, West Virginia. Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 6, 2016 12:41 AM UTC Donald Trump pulled out all the stops courting coal miners in West Virginia Thursday night, but he told them to skip [voting in the primary](http://time.com/4228456/republican-primary-delegate-counter/). “Now what I want you to do is save your vote,” Trump told the crowd in Charleston, West Virginia. “You know, you don’t have to vote anymore. Save your vote for the general election, OK? Forget this one, the primary is gone.” Even though Trump is the only remaining Republican presidential candidate, after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich both [dropped out](http://time.com/4317997/republican-party-donald-trump-john-kasich-ted-cruz-indiana/?iid=sr-link1) this week, West Virginia Republicans still do have a primary coming up on Tuesday. In Trump’s first rally since he became the presumptive nominee, he mixed his time with reliving his primary victories and looking ahead to the general election, attacking former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeatedly for saying she’d put coal “[out of business](http://time.com/4316021/hillary-clinton-coal-out-of-business-apology/?iid=sr-link2).” At one point during the speech, Trump put on a hard hat and mimed a coal shoveling motion, before taking the hat off and fixing his hair. He said he has “always been fascinated by the mines,” and had said of a Trump presidency: “For those miners, get ready, because you’re going to be working your asses off.” > [](https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/728373107296219136) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4320484/donald-trump-west-virginia-primary-stay-home/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4320484/donald-trump-west-virginia-primary-stay-home/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Tells West Virginia Primary Voters to Stay Home","datePublished":"2016-05-06T00:41:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:20:02.194Z","description":"\"Save your vote for the general election, OK?\"","url":"https://time.com/4320484/donald-trump-west-virginia-primary-stay-home/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa6e9ab8c858d8d3/698892170b72e3238e6e9444/trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa6e9ab8c858d8d3/698892170b72e3238e6e9444/trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-TRUMP","caption":"US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-TRUMP","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4320484/donald-trump-west-virginia-primary-stay-home/","name":"Donald Trump Tells West Virginia Primary Voters to Stay Home"}}]}] ```