A top Maine official announced Donald Trump would be disqualified from her state’s primary ballot just hours after Colorado put the former president back on its 2024 primary ballot.
On Thursday, a ruling from Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows found Trump’s primary petition to be “invalid,” claiming he violated the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause due to his conduct leading up to the January 6 riots.
Democrat Bellows also rejected Trump’s bid to get her to recuse herself from ruling on his eligibility amid multiple legal challenges to his candidacy, The Daily Wire reported.
Meanwhile, similar cases against Trump in other states have been dismissed or remain active.
A lawsuit in Colorado led the state’s supreme court to kick Trump off the primary ballot.
However, Trump was allowed to appear on Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot after the state’s Republican Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the ruling.
Many of the legal challenges against Trump are using Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which is designed to prevent former officials from returning to public office after the Civil War if they joined the Confederacy.
Trump fought back against the array of litigation.
“The state has interfered in the primary election by unreasonably restricting the Party’s ability to select its candidates,” said the Colorado GOP’s filing to the U.S. Supreme Court this week.
“As a natural and inevitable result, the state has interfered with the Party’s ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate of its choice.”
“And it has done so based on a subjective claim of insurrection the state lacks any constitutional authority to make,” the filing added.
Trump’s legal team sought to have Bellows recuse herself after a social media post revealed bias against the former president.
“The secretary’s expression of support for the view that January 6, 2021, constituted an insurrection, and that President Trump was an ‘insurrectionist,’ is probative evidence of prejudgment and bias,” they said in a filing on Wednesday.
In her ruling, Bellows denied the request for a recusal, stating that she could preside over the matter without bias.
“My decision is based exclusively on the record before me, and it has in no way been influenced by my political affiliation or personal views about the events of January 6, 2021,” Bellows said.
Watch
Democrat Shenna Bellows explains that she personally decided that Trump was guilty of engaging in an insurrection.
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) December 29, 2023
So she unilaterally removed the leading Republican presidential candidate from Maine's ballot.
She gleefully tells MSDNC "I could not, unfortunately—or… pic.twitter.com/jPpmaxx9yr
Bellows said any challengers must appeal within five days.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.:
“We will quickly file a legal objection in state court to prevent this atrocious decision in Maine from taking effect, and President Trump will never stop fighting to Make America Great Again.”
READ: Here Are the 4 Colorado Justices Who Voted to Disqualify Trump from 2024 Ballot
