California Elections Official Urged to Remove Trump From Primary Ballot

Former President Donald Trump prepares to testify during his trial in New York State Supreme Court in New York City on Nov. 6, 2023. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis has called on the secretary of state to explore every possible legal avenue to block former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot.

Ms. Kounalakis said in a Dec. 20 letter to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber that she should look to the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision from the previous day that blocks President Trump from the Colorado primary ballot and take similar action in the same spirit.

“I am prompted by the Colorado Supreme Court’s recent ruling that former President Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s ballot as a Presidential Candidate due to his role in inciting an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” Ms. Kounalakis wrote.

“I urge you to explore every legal option to remove former President Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential primary ballot,” she added.

California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis speaks to the Labor Caucus at the California Democratic Party state endorsing convention, in Sacramento, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2023. Lezlie Sterling/The Sacramento Bee via AP

The letter comes a day after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that President Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 incident. The 4–3 decision hinged on two key premises. One is that the U.S. President is a public “officer” in the understanding of the law and that President Trump supposedly engaged in an “insurrection.”

President Trump has called the Colorado court’s ruling a politically motivated decision and a “shame for our country.” His attorneys have said they will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A spokesperson for the California Secretary of State’s office told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that they’re reviewing the letter and “may respond at an appropriate time.”

Much like the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision was denounced by President Trump’s GOP rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, Ms. Kounalakis’ call to bar the former president met with derision.

“Now California is trying to remove Trump from the ballot, citing Colorado. DeSantis, Haley, & Christie should join me in pledging to withdraw from the primary in any state that removes Trump from the ballot,” presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy wrote in a post on X. “That’s the only way to stop blatant election interference in the GOP primary.”

Trump’s GOP Rivals Denounce Ruling

Mr. Ramaswamy has vowed to withdraw from the Republican primary ballot in Colorado after the high court’s decision, which he called an “attack on democracy.”

Besides Mr. Ramaswamy, other Trump rivals for the Republican nomination criticized the Colorado Supreme Court decision.

Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie each spoke out against the court’s decision.

Mr. DeSantis denounced the ruling during a meeting with Iowa voters on the morning of Dec. 20, saying, “There was no trial on any of this” and calling the situation an abuse of power.

Ms. Haley said in Iowa after a campaign event on Dec. 19 that she doesn’t think the courts should be blocking the former president’s path to the White House.

“I will tell you that I don’t think Donald Trump needs to be president. I think I need to be president. I think that’s good for the country,” Ms. Haley said. “But I will beat him fair and square. We don’t need to have judges making these decisions. We need voters to make these decisions.”

Mr. Christie released a statement criticizing the ruling and saying that the voters should be the ones to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House.

“What I will say is I do not believe Donald Trump should be prevented from being president of the United States by any court,” he said. “I think he should be prevented from being the president of the United States by the voters of this country.”

Also, independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. has criticized the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision as contrary to democratic norms and values.

“Trump blocked from the ballot in Colorado. When a court in another country disqualifies an opposition candidate from running, we say, ‘That’s not a real democracy.’ Now it’s happening here,” he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

President Trump’s attorneys said they would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. His legal spokesperson, Alina Habba, commented on the Colorado Supreme Court decision in a statement: “It will not stand, and we trust that the Supreme Court will reverse this unconstitutional order.”

In his critique of the decision, Mr. Kennedy Jr. clarified that he’s not a Trump supporter, and that’s why he’s running against him—but that he doesn’t want to win on the back of legal maneuvers.

“I want to beat him in a fair election, not because he was kicked off the ballot. Let the voters choose, not the courts!” he said.

By contrast, the left-leaning group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which sued on behalf of several Colorado voters to block President Trump from appearing on the ballot, praised the ruling.

“CREW successfully barred Trump from the Colorado ballot,” the group said in a call for donations to keep funding its legal fight to prevent the former president from running for office in 2024.

“This is a monumental win—but it’s not over. Trump has made clear he’s going to try to overturn this decision,” the group added.

14th Amendment

The unprecedented 4-3 ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court makes Colorado the first and only state to disqualify President Trump from appearing on a state primary ballot.

The ruling also makes President Trump the first candidate in U.S. history to be declared ineligible to run for the White House.

A number of other attempts in other states to remove President Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment have failed.

The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision centered on an interpretation of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which is known as the disqualification clause. It states that no person shall hold office if they have “previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States” and engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution.

CREW and other petitioners who sued the Colorado secretary of state to force President Trump off the primary ballot argued that “officer of the United States” would certainly cover the highest office in the federal government, so the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause should apply.

However, Colorado 2nd District Court Judge Sarah Wallace said in a 100-plus page ruling that there was “scant evidence” that was the case, noting that the authors of the 14th Amendment specifically listed offices, with the presidency not among them.

Judge Wallace did, however, find that President Trump engaged in an “insurrection,” and, on appeal, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. President is a public “officer,” and so the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause applies.