The Oregon Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a bid to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot based on the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban,” saying it’s waiting for the US Supreme Court to rule on the issue.
The ruling comes after Colorado and Maine kicked Trump off the ballot, after judges and officials determined that his role in the January 6 insurrection renders him ineligible for office. However, those decisions have been paused to allow for appeals.
Trump has prevailed in other states, where courts dismissed lawsuits on procedural grounds and never grappled with the questions about January 6. He has beaten back challenges in Minnesota, Michigan, and Arizona – and California’s top election official recently decided to keep him on the ballot there as well.
The Oregon court did not rule on the merits of the challenge, specifically citing the ongoing litigation at the US Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments in the Colorado case on February 8.
Maine and Colorado removed him from the primary ballot, these are states and delegates he can not win. So blue states actually matter because if he doesn’t win the nomination, he won’t be the Republican candidate. If enough states do it, it’s possible that another candidate could slide in.
I’m concerned too that if another more “moderate” candidate is placed on the gop side in enough states, people lukewarm on Biden could be persuaded to vote red when they would have voted for Biden in a Trump matchup. I’m sure that there are political types doing this math. I’m not sure Biden has the pull to get the win.
When my options are mediocre lib, slightly fascist con and ultra fascist con, I am comfortable with taking the risk with the slightly fascist con to never risk the ultra fascist con winning.