Democrat Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has come out against efforts to disqualify former president and Republican 2024 candidate Donald Trump from the ballot in 2024 and is warning his fellow Democrat, President Joe Biden, to campaign more frequently in the state.
Political activists opposed to President Trump have argued that under an interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the former president should be regarded as an insurrectionist over the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and therefore is disqualified from holding office in the future. President Trump and his allies have disputed the degree to which he should be blamed for the Capitol breach and have challenged efforts to have him disqualified from returning to the White House.
While speaking with the Associated Press this week, Mr. Evers said those opposed to President Trump’s 2024 run “can vote against him.” The Democrat Wisconsin governor said he believes President Trump has done things that should disqualify him from the ballot, but predicted the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately see it differently.
Removing Trump wouldn’t “solve anything because, at the end of the day, I think the U.S. Supreme Court is going to say, ‘We’re going to let the people decide,’” Mr. Evers said.
Last month the all-Democrat-appointed Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that President Trump’s actions relating to the 2021 breach at the U.S. Capitol constituted insurrectionist activity. The court further determined that the Fourteenth Amendment’s “disqualification clause” would apply to the office of the presidency and that President Trump should be barred from appearing on election ballots in the state.
President Trump is challenging the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision and has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in, and his name is still set to appear on ballots in the state for now.
Democrat Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has also ruled that President Trump should be disqualified from holding federal office, and the Trump campaign is preparing to challenge the decision through Maine’s court system.
Evers Calls on Biden to Step Up Wisconsin Campaign Efforts
If President Trump is allowed to remain on the ballot in Wisconsin and win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, it could set the stage for a close election battle in the state.Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point. President Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by about 0.7 percentage points. Amid the widely contested 2020 election, Wisconsin went to President Biden by nearly the same margin.
A November poll of Wisconsin voters by Marquette University found President Biden leading President Trump by about 50 to 48 percent, with around 1 percent of voters undecided. That same poll found 42 percent of voters in the state viewed President Biden favorably while 56 percent viewed him unfavorably. By comparison, the poll found 37 percent of Wisconsin voters viewed President Trump favorably and 61 percent viewed him unfavorably.
While President Biden faired better in terms of favorability in the November Marquette poll of Wisconsin voters, he was widely viewed as too old. Fifty-five percent of respondents said the “too old” descriptor applied “very well” to President Biden, while 22 percent said the description applied “somewhat well” to the sitting president. By comparison, 25 percent of respondents said the “tool old” descriptor applied to President Trump “very well” and 29 percent said it applied “somewhat well.”
Mr. Evers said President Biden’s age is “of course” concerning for his reelection odds, but believes the sitting president still has a chance to keep voters in the state on his side by campaigning in the state.
“He needs to be here, simple as that,” the Democrat Wisconsin governor said.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) agreed that President Biden needs to keep up appearances in Wisconsin and said he has communicated this concern to the Biden team already and that they are receptive.
“He wants to do that,” Mr. Pocan said of President Biden campaigning in the key battleground state. “He certainly understands the importance of Wisconsin.”
