This will come as no surprise to – well, anyone – but former President Donald Trump was not happy to hear that he was removed from the primary ballot in Colorado. At a campaign rally in Iowa, he blasted President Joe Biden and other Democrats for pushing election interference.
Trump’s campaign team also reacted to the decision, calling it “undemocratic” and “flawed.” Even other Republicans have stepped into the conversation.
Most notably, GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy posted to X that he was withdrawing his name from the Colorado ballot in solidarity with Trump. Ramaswamy called on other candidates to do the same “or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country,” he says.
This 14th Amendment argument has been taken up in multiple states this year regarding Trump. So far, Colorado is the only one to have approved the use of the amendment to bar Trump from the ballot – albeit by a slim majority.
Just recently we learned that North Carolina’s election board allowed Trump on the primary ballot, citing a lack of authority to consider such a challenge. Even the dissenting judges in the Colorado case gave a similar concern.
One of the three dissenting justices on the Colorado Supreme Court expressed that a lawsuit against determining Trump’s eligibility for the ballot seemed unfair without due process. This justice, Carlos Samour, said:
Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past – dare I say, engaged in insurrection – there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office.
Regardless, those who brought the case were delighted to hear the news, saying it was “historic,” “justified,” and “necessary.”
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign signaled that they would appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court, where it may have some traction. Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb told CNN that he believes Trump would receive the backing of all nine justices due to the wording of the Constitution.