Maine Disqualifies Trump from State's Presidential Primary Ballot
Dec 29, 2023Maine on Thursday disqualified Donald Trump from the state ballot in next year’s U.S. presidential primary election, becoming the second state to bar the former president for his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, concluded that Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, incited an insurrection. He spread false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election. He urged his supporters to march on the Capitol to stop lawmakers from certifying the vote.
The decision came after a group of former Maine lawmakers said that Trump should be disqualified based on a provision of the U.S. Constitution that bars people from holding office if they engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” after previously swearing an oath to the United States.
Lawyers for Trump have disputed that he engaged in insurrection and argued that his remarks to supporters on the day of the 2021 riot were protected by his right to free speech.
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