The Colorado Supreme Court removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s primary election ballot in a decision that had immediate ripple effects in state and national politics. The decision quickly drew sharp criticism from Republicans, who called the ruling unjustifiable.
The Tuesday decision by the state’s high court removed Trump on a 14th Amendment argument.
The decision will likely spark a Supreme Court battle and could set up a powerful precedent in the interpretation of election law.
Prominent elected officials condemned the decision, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who called it “garbage.” Cruz predicted that the Colorado decision would make it to the Supreme Court, which he predicted would overturn it.
He called for every Democrat and media outlet calling to “save Democracy” to “denounce the partisan judges trying to PREVENT THE voters from choosing the next President?”
In addition, Trump’s son Eric Trump predicted that the ruling would “add 5%+ points” to his father’s “already runaway polls.”
Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called the decision “election interference.”
“This irresponsible ruling will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and our legal team looks forward to helping fighting for a victory.” She further said that the GOP’s presidential nomination would be “decided by Republican voters, not a partisan state court.”
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called the ruling an “attack on democracy.” He said that it was “unconstitutional” and followed “every trick in the book to eliminate President Trump from running in this election.”
This is what an *actual* attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and *unprecedented* decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado. Having tried every trick in the book to eliminate President Trump from running in…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 19, 2023
He further issued a “demand” to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and former South Carolina Nikki Haley (R) to pledge to withdraw from the state’s Republican primary unless Trump remains on the Colorado primary ballot.
DeSantis wrote on social media that the effort abused “judicial power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal grounds.” He also called for the Supreme Court to reverse the decision. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) shared an image of bananas, referring to a banana republic. He said that this was the “kind of wake-up call we should not ignore.”