Trump Blocked From Maine’s 2024 Primary Ballot

Ethan Millman
·2 min read
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The Secretary of State of Maine has removed Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential primary ballot, citing an interpretation of the 14th amendment that would bar insurrectionists from holding office.

Maine joins Colorado as the second state in the U.S. to block Trump’s presidential bid after Colorado’s Supreme Court ejected him earlier this month after ruling that the former president engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I do not reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred, and the highest court of this
State has repeatedly recognized that ‘no right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live,'” Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows wrote in her decision published Thursday.

“The events of January 6, 2021 were unprecedented and tragic. They were an attack not
only upon the Capitol and government officials, but also an attack on the rule of law,” she continued.
“The evidence here demonstrates that they occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President. The U.S. Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government, and Section 336 requires me to act in response.”

In a lengthy statement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said the campaign would file a legal objection over the claim and called Bellows “a virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat who has decided to interfere in the presidential election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden.”

Trump was indicted this summer over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Over the weekend, he said in a post on Truth Social that he deserved immunity from prosecution, claiming that he was doing his “duty as president” by claiming the election was rigged.

Earlier this week, Trump allies asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado Supreme Court decision blocking the 2024 GOP frontrunner from the state’s Republican primary ballot. Lawsuits have been filed in more than two dozen states seeking to disqualify the ex-president under the 14th Amendment and keep him off the ballot, according to the national security website Lawfare.

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