Morrisey files to intervene in lawsuit that seeks to have Trump removed from West Virginia ballots

Oct. 3—West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Monday he has filed to intervene in a lawsuit that seeks to have former President Donald Trump removed from the Mountain State's 2024 ballot.

Morrisey said he is intervening on behalf of the state — and all voters who should have a right to select a candidate of their choosing — in the lawsuit, which was filed last week by a resident of Texas in the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. It seeks to have Trump kicked off the West Virginia 2024 presidential ballot on the grounds that he "engaged in or provided 'aid or comfort' to an insurrection."

"Excluding an eligible candidate from the ballot deprives citizens of the choice for themselves who they want to represent them in every level of government and impedes a fair and free election process," Morrisey, a Republican, said Monday. "Any eligible candidate has the right to be on the ballot unless legally disqualified, and we will defend the laws of West Virginia and the right of voters and candidates to the fullest."

Morrisey said similar lawsuits have been filed in other states in an attempt to keep Trump off of the 2024 ballot.

To date, states with similar cases include Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Oklahoma. Morrisey said similar challenges are anticipated in the near future as the 2024 election cycle heats up.

The West Virginia lawsuit also is being challenged by the state's Republican Party. West Virginia GOP Chairwoman Elgine McArdle said last week that she joined the American Center for Law and Justice in filing a motion to intervene in the case on behalf of the West Virginia Republican Party.

"Over the past few months there has been a coordinated national effort to prevent President Trump from appearing on the ballot in 2024," McArdle said last week. "This effort has now arrived in West Virginia. The West Virginia Republican Party represents an association of nearly half a million registered Republican voters in this state, and as the chair of the Republican Party, I cannot and will not stand idly by as our voters are deprived of their choices in the presidential election."

McArdle said Trump won nearly 70 percent of the vote in West Virginia in 2020 and remains overwhelmingly popular in the state.

The motion by the West Virginia Republican Party to intervene as a third party in the case has been referred to U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn in Beckley.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com. Follow him @BDTOwens