Trump Listed on Michigan Presidential Primary Ballot

Former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a campaign rally at Trendsetter Engineering Inc., in Houston, Texas, on Nov. 2, 2023. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump has officially—at least for now—made it onto the 2024 presidential primary candidate list in Michigan, even though a legal battle that seeks to block him from being listed remains pending.

The list, released on Nov. 13 by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, marks a significant step (though not the final word) in President Trump’s efforts to stay on the ballot after activists sued Ms. Benson to force her to drop him.

While several left-leaning groups have sued to block President Trump from the ballot in Michigan on 14th Amendment grounds, the former president’s legal team has demanded that Ms. Benson keep him on.

In releasing the list featuring President Trump as one of the presidential primary candidates, Ms. Benson said she would follow Michigan law (which requires President Trump be put on the ballot) and the direction of the court (which could still rule to kick him off).

“Today, as required by statute, we are publicly posting the names of the candidates who qualify under Michigan law to be listed on the ballot as a candidate for president in their respective party’s primary,” Ms. Benson said.

“Barring a court order, these candidates will be included on Michigan’s presidential primary ballot in 2024 unless they withdraw their names from consideration.”

Under Michigan state law, the Secretary of State had until 4 p.m. to release initial lists of candidates for president who are generally advocated by the national news media to be listed on the ballot for the state’s primary unless a court rules otherwise.

President Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination.

Ms. Benson’s release of the list comes just days after a judge in Grand Rapids, Michigan, heard arguments in multiple lawsuits seeking to block the former president from the ballot.

Judge James Robert Redford said on Nov. 9 that he “will act with all possible deliberate speed to figure out what should happen next” and vowed to issue a written opinion, though he did not give a specific time frame.

The Michigan presidential primary is scheduled for Feb. 27, 2024.

Legal Battle

The plaintiffs in two separate lawsuits underway in Michigan point to a section of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment that prohibits a person from running for federal office if they have engaged in  “insurrections or rebellions.”

Left-leaning groups have filed similar 14th Amendment lawsuits in Colorado and Minnesota to bar President Trump from the ballot, seeking to portray him as the instigator of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit citing the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection” provision to justify removing President Trump from the ballot in that state.

Free Speech For People, a group representing petitioners before the Minnesota Supreme Court, is also involved in one of the Michigan cases against Ms. Benson.

In this particular case, President Trump’s legal team filed a complaint against Ms. Benson, in which his attorneys argue that the Secretary of State does not have the legal authority to keep his name off the ballot.

“Despite President Trump’s tremendous popularity, there are people who want to deny Michigan voters the opportunity to express their choice by voting for him,” the complaint reads.

“To accomplish this, they want the Secretary of State to violate her duties and exercise powers she does not have to keep President Trump’s name off of the ballot. And they want to use this Court as a vehicle to do it,” the former president’s attorneys wrote, while asking the judge to issue a declaratory judgment confirming that Ms. Benson has no authority to refuse to place President Trump’s name on the ballot and then issue an injunction that would prevent her from doing so.

‘Far From a Slam Dunk’

For her part, Ms. Benson seems to agree with the legal logic laid out in President Trump’s complaint. She wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post in mid-September that the view that Secretaries of State can act unilaterally to bar President Trump from the ballot under the 14th Amendment is “misguided.”

“Whether Trump is eligible to run for president again is a decision not for secretaries of state but for the courts,” she wrote, echoing the remarks she made when releasing the candidate list on Nov. 13.

Even though she said that there were “compelling” arguments put forward by supporters of the legal theory that President Trump could be disqualified from holding office under the 14th Amendment, she said that “significant counterarguments, along with practical considerations, make this theory far from a slam dunk.”

While the case in Michigan remains pending, the judge suggested that some type of appeal is likely.

“I fully recognize I am not the last work on whatever happens in this case,” Judge Redford said during the Nov. 9 hearing.

The Michigan case—and others that are based on the 14th Amendment—basically argue that the former president took part in an “insurrection” by giving an impassioned speech on Jan. 6 before the Capitol riot broke out.

President Donald Trump greets the crowd at the "Stop The Steal" Rally in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

President Trump said in his Jan. 6 speech that protesters should “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,” though some of his critics have seized on a portion of his remarks where he said “we fight like hell” and “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore” as a call for violence.

The former president has, on numerous occasions, denied calling for violent protests while insisting he meant his remarks about fighting like hell metaphorically.