A high-ranking official in Maine has issued a ruling banning former US President Donald Trump from running in the 2024 primaries.
This was reported by CNN.
Maine Secretary of State Shanna Bellows suspended her decision pending a possible appeal in state court, which Trump’s team said it intends to file.
The decision makes Maine the second state to remove Trump from office after the Colorado Supreme Court issued a similar ruling.
Bellows, a Democrat, made the decision public on Thursday, December 28, after presiding over an administrative hearing earlier this month on Trump’s eligibility for the office. A bipartisan group of former state legislators has filed a lawsuit against Trump.
“I do not come to this conclusion lightly,” Bellows wrote. “Democracy is sacred… I remember that no secretary of state has ever denied a presidential candidate access to the ballot under the third section of the 14th Amendment (to the U.S. Constitution – ed.). However, I also remember that no presidential candidate has ever participated in an insurrection before,” she said.
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that a candidate who has been involved in “inciting violence against the U.S. government” (the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021) is prohibited from running for office.
Trump’s campaign spokesman Stephen Chang accused Bellows of being a “hard-core leftist” who “decided to interfere in the presidential election.”
“The record establishes that Trump used false narratives of election fraud in the months leading up to January 6, 2021, to incite his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent the certification of the 2020 election and a peaceful transfer of power,” Bellows argues, adding that her ruling on Thursday will be delayed until the Maine Superior Court, the trial court, rules.
- On Tuesday, December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court decided to ban former US President Donald Trump from participating in local elections of Republican candidates for the nomination as a candidate for the US presidency in 2024.
