Former President Donald Trump greets supporters as he arrives at a commit to caucus rally, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023, in Waterloo, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Donald Trump will appear on the 2024 presidential primary ballot in California — for now — after Secretary of State Shirley Weber rebuffed calls for the former president’s removal after the Colorado Supreme Court removed him for violating the insurrection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Eleni Kounalakis, the Golden State’s lieutenant governor, asked Weber in a letter last week to “explore all possible legal avenues” to remove Trump from the ballot, underlining to the state secretary that the former president’s role in inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, flatly disqualified him from holding office. Kounalakis is running for Weber’s seat in 2026.
“This decision is about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of democracy,” Kounalakis wrote on Dec. 20.
But on Thursday, Weber released the state’s list of certified candidates for the presidential primary with Trump’s name on the first page wedged among more than a dozen opponents.
The state secretary’s decision may displease some voters but it also heads off a potential clash with her superior in the state, California Governor Gavin Newsom. Last week Newsom pooh-poohed the notion of Trump’s disqualification, saying it would be a “political distraction” to follow Colorado’s suit and that he preferred to leave it to the voters to decide whether Trump should hold office, Politico reported.
Weber’s role as state secretary means she is California’s chief election officer and the one who decides who should appear on electoral ballots based on the requisite criteria.
In a letter sent before she officially placed Trump on the ballot, Weber wrote to Kounalakis: “While we may agree that the attack on the Capitol and the former president’s involvement was abhorrent, there are complex legal issues surrounding this matter.”
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“The former president’s conduct tainted and continues to sow the public’s mistrust in government and the legitimacy of elections so it is more critical than ever to safeguard elections in a way that transcends political divisions. Removing a candidate from the ballot under Section III of the Fourteenth Amendment is not something my office takes lightly and is not as simple as the requirement that a person be at least 35 years old to be president,” Weber wrote.
Trump is expected to appeal the Colorado high court’s ruling, though he has not officially done so yet, only broadcast his grievances about the ruling on social media. The Colorado Republican State Central Committee filed its appeal this week.
The Colorado Supreme Court’s Dec. 19 ruling stayed any further action on Trump’s placement on the ballot until Jan. 4, the deadline for the state’s primary ballots to be printed.
Meanwhile, in Maine, that state’s secretary, Shenna Bellows, opted to remove Trump from the primary ballot.
“The U.S. Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government, and Section 336 requires me to act in response,” Bellows wrote in the decision released Thursday.
There are five days open for appeal.
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