With the Maine Secretary of State’s decision Thursday to remove former President Donald Trump from ballots in the state, a movement to disqualify him from running in 2024 scored its second recent victory.
At the same time, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is working to get his name onto ballots.
According to CNN, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows removed Trump from the 2024 Republican primary ballot. He’s currently the frontrunner to be the GOP candidate, with polls indicating he has support from more than 60% of Republican voters. Last week, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump should be disqualified from holding office under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Following the 2020 election, and in light of Trump’s frequent, unfounded claims of election fraud as well as his connection to the deadly Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, the group Free Speech For People started the “Trump is Disqualified” movement. It cited the 14th amendment – which disqualifies potential candidates who had been involved in an insurrection – as the reason why Trump shouldn’t hold office again.
“In July of 2022, Free Speech For People issued a declaration for secretaries of state across the country and called on them to sign the declaration,” said the group. “This declaration states that former president Donald Trump is barred from running for any future public office based on his incitement of an insurrection on January 6, 2021, following the mandate of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.”
However, cases against Trump based on this section of the amendment haven’t had much luck until this month, according to CBS News. For example, most of the 26 cases were filed by a little-known Republican presidential candidate named John Anthony Castro have been dismissed.
“The Colorado and Maine challenges have been the only ones to succeed in declaring Trump ineligible under Section 3, though the question of whether he can appear on the 2024 ballot is likely to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court,” CBS explained.
This month, the Michigan Supreme Court also refused to hear a case regarding Trump’s ballot eligibility, “because we are not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by this court.” California Secretary of State Shirley Weber also decided Thursday to include Trump’s name on the list of candidates certified to run in the state’s presidential primary, said POLITICO.
These cases are just a handful out of many pending. Lawfare, a national security website, is tracking 14 in the following states: Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to Lawfare's database.
As for Kennedy’s efforts to get on the ballot, the Democrat-turned-independent is setting his sights on Utah first, according to a press release. It said that Kennedy will hold a Jan. 3 press conference to announce his ballot status in the state.
“Kennedy will address the campaign’s plans to get him on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia,” it said. “He will be joined by dozens of volunteers from across Utah who helped with signature gathering.”
Last month, Kennedy outlined his plan to get on ballots across the nation during a fundraising event. While third-party candidates aren’t often considered a threat to Democrats and the GOP in presidential elections, some think this member of a famous American political family may be able to impact the results. He’s already managed to secure fundraising support from donors who used to back Trump.
As Trump and Kennedy fight to appear on ballots, President Joe Biden’s approval rating is struggling. Some polls have seen Trump poll ahead of the president, and Kennedy’s team cited polls that showed that the independent has recently gained more support.