Georgia joins effort to keep Trump on the ballot

Georgia joined more than two dozen other states in supporting former President Donald Trump’s legal quest to remain on Colorado’s 2024 presidential ballot ahead of a high-stakes U.S. Supreme Court case that could shape the November election.

Attorney General Chris Carr argued in the court filing that the Colorado Supreme Court’s December decision to bar Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment would ” create widespread chaos ” in 2024 if allowed to stand.

“Most obviously, it casts confusion into an election cycle that is just weeks away. Beyond that, it upsets the respective roles of the Congress, the States, and the courts,” read the brief, filed by GOP attorneys general in 27 states.

The “friend of the court” filing Saturday underlines how different GOP factions have coalesced behind Trump’s legal fight. The National Republican Senatorial Committee and other Republican groups have also joined the effort to overturn the Colorado court decision.

Carr’s role in the filing is also noteworthy. The second-term Republican has never been closely aligned with Trump, and rejected direct pressure from the then-president and his allies in 2020 to support a doomed Texas lawsuit that sought to toss out Georgia’s election results.

He later stepped down as chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association following a robocall from the group’s policy arm that urged people to march to the U.S. Capitol and “stop the steal” ahead of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 attack.

Trump turned against Carr in 2022, endorsing a far-right attorney who staked his primary campaign on election fraud lies. Carr trounced his challenger, John Gordon, in the primary and defeated Democrat Jen Jordan in November.

Carr is now is expected to run for governor in 2026 to succeed Gov. Brian Kemp, who also walloped Trump’s handpicked Republican challenger. He said in a statement that the election “should be determined by the voters, not the courts.”

“Removing any candidate without due process sets a scary and dangerous precedent not only for this election but will also open the door to judicial skullduggery far into the future affecting both parties,” Carr said.