Maine Democrat Rep. Jared Golden blasts move to pull Trump off primary ballot

One of Maine’s two Democratic members of the House of Representatives ripped his state’s secretary of state for unilaterally removing former President Donald Trump from the 2024 Republican primary ballot.

“I voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the January 6th insurrection. I do not believe he should be re-elected as President of the United States,” Rep. Jared Golden said in a statement late Thursday.

“However, we are a nation of laws, therefore, until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed on the ballot,” added Golden, who represents Maine’s rural 2nd District, which Trump carried in both 2016 and 2020.

Golden was joined in his criticism of Maine Secretary of State Shanna Bellows’ decision by Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with the Democrats in the upper chamber of Congress.

King noted that while he had voted to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection in February 2021 after the 45th president had been impeached on that charge by the House, “the required two-thirds of the Senate did not do so.”

“Although I respect the Secretary of State’s careful process … absent a final judicial determination of a violation of the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause, I believe the decision as to whether or not Mr. Trump should again be considered for the presidency should rest with the people as expressed in free and fair elections,” King added. “This is the ultimate check within our Constitutional system.”

Trump is the odds-on favorite for the GOP’s presidential nomination, leading national polls by more than 50 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics average.

The polling aggregator also shows him ahead of President Biden in the national popular vote.

Bellows disqualified Trump from the March 5 primary, saying his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot constituted an “insurrection.”

Her decision followed a Dec. 19 ruling from Colorado’s Supreme Court to the same effect, with both parties pointing to a prohibition in the 14th Amendment barring those who have “engaged in insurrection” from holding office again.

“I do not reach this conclusion lightly. Democracy is sacred,” Bellows wrote in her 34-page decision. “I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth 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,” she added.

Bellows’ decision was backed by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), who said in a statement: “The text of the Fourteenth Amendment is clear. No person who engaged in an insurrection against the government can ever again serve in elected office.

“On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump incited a violent mob to block Congress from certifying the Electoral College and to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,” Pingree added. “Our Constitution is the very bedrock of America and our laws, and it appears that Trump’s actions are prohibited by the Constitution.”

The Colorado Republican Party has since appealed that state’s Supreme Court decision to the US Supreme Court after the Colorado justices stayed their ruling until Jan. 4, which will allow Trump to remain on the ballot until then.

Colorado has to certify all presidential candidates nominated by political parties on Jan. 5, meaning the Supreme Court must decide whether to take up the state GOP appeal before then.

The Michigan Supreme Court declined to rule along the same lines Dec. 27 in response to a complaint filed in its state, keeping the former president in that Feb. 27 primary contest.

On Thursday, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber also chose to keep Trump, 77, on her state’s GOP primary ballot.

The Trump campaign praised the Michigan high court’s decision but attacked the four Colorado justices who booted him along with Bellows, with a spokesman calling her a “hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat.”

Attorneys for the president had already sought to head off Bellows by pointing to past social media posts as proof she “concluded that President Trump engaged in insurrection” and should disqualify herself from deciding his eligibility.

The Trump campaign promised to “quickly file a legal objection in state court to prevent this atrocious decision in Maine from taking effect,” but has yet to petition the US Supreme Court over the Colorado ruling.

Colorado and California will host their primary elections on March 5, the day after the former president is scheduled to appear in Washington, DC, federal court for the start of his trial related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in August with four counts: alleged conspiracy to defraud the US government, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

However, that case has stalled after US District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a motion from Trump’s defense team that argued his attempts to challenge 2020 election results were protected by presidential immunity.

Smith asked the Supreme Court this month to step in and issue an expedited ruling on the motion, which was denied, all but guaranteeing that Trump’s trial will be delayed.