Former President Donald Trump’s removal from the Colorado primary presidential election ballot has triggered a partisan firestorm that’s likely to make an already fierce and ugly California campaign season even more brutal.
The rhetoric and finger-pointing is likely to grow even uglier. It already has.
Trump supporters in the state say Democrats are trying to deny voters their right to choose a candidate. GOP loyalists see the Colorado Supreme Court decision as a Deep State conspiracy to keep Trump out of the White House at all costs.
Democrat officials across California, such as Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, are urging the Secretary of State to follow the Colorado example and remove Trump from its March 5 ballot.
Colorado’s court ruled that Trump’s role in the January 6th Capitol attack in 2021 violated the U.S. Constitution 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause. It says anyone who had taken an oath to support the Constitution as an elected official and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” cannot serve in public office.
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The former president’s camp quickly sent a message that was echoed by supporters.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called the ruling “a completely flawed decision” and a “Soros funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in election.” (George Soros is a billionaire philanthropist who backs progressive causes, and who frequently draws conspiracy theories from the far right.)
“We have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor,” Cheung said.
Trump also chimed in on social media platform Truth Social.
“I’m not an Insurrectionist (“PEACEFULLY & PATRIOTICALLY”), Crooked Joe Biden is!!!” he said Wednesday.
The conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court (Trump appointed three of its nine members) is considered unlikely to let the decision stand, and it’s also unlikely that other states would then attempt to do the same.
That hasn’t stopped the MAGA faction of the Republican Party from campaigning on, as former Congressman Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty phrased it in a fundraising email, “one of the most anti-democratic court decisions” they’ve ever seen.
Republicans “are going to raise a bunch of money off this,” said California Republican consultant Matt Rexroad. “They’re going to be thrilled.”
Campaigning on the battle for the ballot
Shortly after Kounalakis’ letter to Weber, Congressional candidate David Giglio, who is running to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy in the Central Valley, called for a recall against the lieutenant governor.
“Any politician who, absent any sound legal reasoning, endorses stripping voters of their right to vote for a candidate they support does not belong in public office and that’s why I am officially demanding the start of recall proceedings against. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
“President Donald Trump, nor anyone else for that matter, has been tried, charged, or convicted of engaging in an insurrection. These blatant attacks on our ‘democracy’ are coming from the same fascists who claim Donald Trump is a threat to democracy … Kounalakis’ desperate and un-American actions are reason enough to have her recalled. It’s time for Republicans to do more than talk. We must take swift and immediate action,” he said.
Jack Posobiec, a strongly conservative media personality and former news anchor for pro-Trump One America News Network, used the occasion to urge supporters of his daily newsletter to sign “an EMERGENCY PETITION to help keep President Trump on the ballot in all 50 states.”
The petition link takes readers to a donation page.
“This helps (Trump) in terms of fundraising,” Rexroad said. “People are fired up because (they think) he’s running against the system, against the machine.”
Trump was eager to capitalize on being booted from the Centennial State ballot.
“There’s no other way to say this: our country needs you now more than ever before,” said a campaign fundraising email on Thursday.
“Patriots across the country must peacefully unite to put a STOP to this right now — or our Free Republic will be lost forever.”
Below the statement was a link to donate.
What happens if Trump’s off the ballot?
The California Secretary of State’s office confirmed last week that Trump is on its list of generally recognized presidential candidates for the March primary.
Shirley Weber, Democrat, has not responded to the lieutenant governor’s letter asking her to boot Trump from the ballot. Other elected officials in the legislature, such as Assemblyman Evan Low, D-Silicon Valley, have spoken out about getting Trump off the ballot, and one civil rights attorney is attempting to have Trump removed through a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court.
All attempts aside, it’s an unlikely scenario. Trump won the 2016 California Republican primaries. He lost the state in the 2016 and 2020 general elections..
Being kicked off the state’s March 5 primary ballot could hurt Trump if the GOP nomination is still being seriously contested. If he wins a majority of the vote, he would get all 169 Republican convention delegates, an important haul since it takes 1,234 to get nominated. Trump is far ahead of his Republican rivals in statewide polls.
Trump lost the general election vote in California in both 2016 and 2020, and would losing California votes likely wouldn’t hurt his national campaign.
If anything, it might help it.
“There are blue collar people in the rust belt who think California is the worst place in the world,” Rexroad said. “California rejecting Trump is good for him.”
But the hypothetical circumstances would mean trouble for down-ballot races at the state level.
“The top of the ticket drives election, that’s what gets voters up,” Rexroad said. “If Trump was not on the ballot in California, it would decimate turnout for Republicans.”
This could be hugely consequential in the competitive Congressional races that will likely decide which party has control the House of Representatives. Democrats nationally need a net gain of five seats, and several California races are regarded as swing contests.
The prospect of no Trump on the ballot could also mean a violent sequel to January 6th — the event that began this controversy in the first place.
“We have some really angry people,” Rexroad said. “And we want to see people go and vote safely. But they take Trump off the ballot, and people don’t get to do that — vote for their candidate — I am concerned about some of these wackadoodles will cause a bunch of harm.”
It’s not a hypothetical fear. NPR reported Friday that since the Colorado Supreme Court decision, violent rhetoric online is increasing.
“We saw trending the terms ‘insurrection’ and ‘civil war’ really within hours of the Colorado decision,” said Daniel Jones, president of Advance Democracy, told NPR. Posts on far-right platforms called for violence against the justices who made the decision, and some of their personal information was also posted on those same platforms.
“I’m actually kind of scared,” Rexroad said.
