The trial over an effort in Minnesota to keep former President Donald Trump off of the 2024 ballot began Thursday at the state Supreme Court as a similar case continued in Colorado.
The lawsuits in both states allege Trump should be barred from the 2024 ballot for his conduct leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. They argue Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which says no one who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” after swearing an oath to support and defend the Constitution can hold office.
A group of Minnesota voters, represented by the election reform group Free Speech for People, sued in September to remove Trump from the state ballot under the 14th Amendment provision. The petitioners include former Minnesota Secretary of State Joan Growe and former state Supreme Court Justice Paul H. Anderson.
How many states’ ballot papers can he afford to lose before he is no longer a viable candidate for the GOP?
After Jan 6? All if them.
I’m don’t quite understand how US politics works. Can the Republicans actually kick him out of the party and prevent him from representing them?
Because my understanding is that he is polling better than all of the other candidates so if they don’t want him in power would they have to remove him from the party and then make him run as an independent or something.
Yes, easily. Democrats actually went to court to establish legally that the nomination process is a process internal to a private organization and therefore not subject to election regulations. The real question is, can they survive kicking him out of the party? There are a lot of people who would absolutely follow Trump out the door if the Reps kicked him out, and they’d end up losing not just the presidency but probably tons of power up and down the ballot.
The real problem. Republicans thought courting the moderate vote could keep them relevant, and then 2016 happened. After that, they realized the only way they stay relevant is if they can get a large number of angry, uneducated, single-issue voters.
Now they’re beholden to them. We got to watch as they slowly enacted their little congressional coup in the House.
But don’t feel bad for them. Republicans are all-in. All that had to happen was under 10 Republicans break ranks and vote for a Conservative Democrat for House Speaker and the Congressional Soap Opera would have ended. They prefer the extremist to anyone with a “D” next to their name.
You pretty much nailed it. The Republicans can just collectively decide, “he doesn’t represent us”, and field a different candidate. Strategically though, doing so would be an incredible blunder so they’ll never do that.
Well, that’s what the primaries are for: The members of the party select one candidate that they all promise to support. Well, theoretically, at least. Trump has not signed that pledge that he would support any other candidate if he loses the primaries.
He’s gonna win their primaries, but it would be wonderful to watch him lose and see all of his fellow traitors from 2020 deal with his post-failure tantrums like they forced us to.
Depends on the state. Colorado and Minnesota have voted consistently for Democrats in the Presidential race for many cycles, and while Republicans could win there, it’s tough and they can afford to focus elsewhere. Conversely, they can’t afford to write off a state like Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Florida. The electoral math would be incredibly difficult.