Now Maine Dem big boots Don off ballot
Maine Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows on Thursday disqualified former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, citing the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung blasted the decision, calling Bellows a “virulent leftist” and “hyperpartisan Bidensupporting Democrat,” in a statement to The Post.
He said the campaign would “quickly file a legal objection in state court to prevent this atrocious decision in Maine from taking effect.”
“I do not reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred,” Bellows wrote in her 34-page decision on multiple complaints challenging the 77-year-old Trump’s eligibility for the primary ballot in Maine based on his actions leading up to and during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
Capitol riot ‘tragic’
“I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection,” she stated, calling the riot at the Capitol “unprecedented and tragic.”
The actions were “an attack not only upon the Capitol and government officials, but also an attack on the rule of law. The evidence here demonstrates that they occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing president,”
Bellows argued.
“I conclude that the . . . challengers [to Trump’s appearance on the ballot] have met their burden . . . They have provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate the falsity of Mr. Trump’s declaration that he meets the qualiof fications the office of the presidency. Therefore, as required . . . I find that the primary petition of Mr. Trump is invalid,” she ruled.
Bellows noted that her decision would be suspended until the Maine Superior
Court rules on the Trump campaign’s expected appeal. The Maine Republican primary election is scheduled to take place on March 5. Bellows’ decision comes after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that Trump was ineligibased ble on the same 14th Amendment grounds. But on Thursday, Colorado’s secretary of state said Trump will remain on the 2024 priballot mary for certification next week as the state Republican Party appeals the court ruling.
Unlike in Colorado and Michigan, Maine’s process for ballot eligibility is first deliberated by the secretary of state before courts can get involved.
Lawyers for Trump unsuccessfully sought to disqualify Bellows from ruling, pointing to her past social media posts as proof she “has already concluded that President Trump engaged in insurrection.”
House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) called Bellows’ decision a “corrupt act” and an “illegal” example of “desperate radical Democrats weaponizing government against President Trump.”
I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access. — Maine Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (below)