It’s official: Trump will be on the GOP primary ballot in CT

Ending any lingering doubt, Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas on Friday morning declared that Donald Trump will definitely be on Connecticut’s GOP primary ballot in April.

A review by her legal team determined that state statutes are clear that Trump is entitled to be on the presidential preference ballot.

State law is different in Maine, she said, where Thomas’ counterpart concluded Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol made him ineligible to run under the Constitution’s 14th amendment.

Thomas told reporters at the Capitol said Connecticut law prevents her from taking that action because it lays out just one benchmark for prospective candidates: Their campaigns must be “generally and seriously advocated or recognized according to reports in the national or state news media.”

Assessing whether Trump was complicit in insurrection isn’t in her power, state lawyers advised her.

“I asked them to research whether or not that was a decision that could be made by our office,” she said. “As we have seen with many other states across the country, it is not within our jurisdiction. A court would need to make that decision.”

Thomas’ office has been hit with questions for months about how Connecticut would treat Trump’s candidacy. A Colorado court has ordered his name off the ballot in that state, a decision that Trump’s lawyers are appealing at the Supreme Court. They are also challenging Maine Secretary of the State Shenna Bellows decision that Trump can’t appear on her state’s ballot.

In both cases, Trump’s support of the violent attempt to take control of the Capitol after his loss in the 2020 election was cited as the reason. Under the 14th Amendment, no one can hold federal office if they’ve previously sworn to uphold the Constitution but then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or aided the country’s enemies.

Trump opponents have challenged his candidacy in dozens of states, saying he’d be ineligible to serve because of his attacks against America’s democracy. But only Maine and Colorado have accepted those arguments; the challenges are still unresolved in some states, while courts in Michigan, Minnesota and elsewhere have ruled in Trump’s favor.

Thomas predicted shortly before Christmas that Trump would get to stay on Connecticut’s ballot, and she made it official Friday.

“I don’t know what other states are going to do, but I do remind people that laws are different in every state,” she said Friday, noting that Maine’s secretary of the state is appointed by its legislature, not its voters.

“So their laws recognize her as part of the representative body, and that’s why she may have been able to make that decision,” Thomas said.

So only a court challenge could affect Trump’s ballot status, and Thomas said she knows of no pending lawsuit. When asked if there is time for someone to sue to get Trump’s name removed, she replied “That would be up to the courts and their schedules.”

Candidates on the Democratic ballot will be President Joe Biden, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, political commentator Cenk Kadir Uygur and author Marianne Williamson.

The Republican candidates will be Texas businessman Ryan Binkley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Ambassador Nikki Haley and Trump.

The primary in Connecticut is April 2.