The Colorado Supreme Court’s shocking decision Tuesday night to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot in 2024 has been met with strong reactions from Republicans.
Trump, his allies, and other Republican candidates for President have all issued statements condemning the decision, which is expected to be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trump’s campaign said in a statement: “Unsurprisingly, the all-Democrat appointed Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, supporting a Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden by removing President Trump’s name from the ballot and eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice. Democrat Party leaders are in a state of paranoia over the growing, dominant lead President Trump has amassed in the polls. They have lost faith in the failed Biden presidency and are now doing everything they can to stop the American voters from throwing them out of office next November. The Colorado Supreme Court issued a completely flawed decision tonight and we will swiftly file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court and a concurrent request for a stay of this deeply undemocratic decision. We have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these unAmerican lawsuits.”
Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary ballot “unless and until Trump’s name is restored,” and said the other GOP primary candidates should do the same or they’ll be “complicit in what the security state is trying to do to shut down Trump.”
“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,” the former biotech entrepreneur wrote in a long post on X.
“Today’s decision is the latest election interference tactic to silence political opponents and swing the election for whatever puppet the Democrats put up this time by depriving Americans of the right to vote for their candidate of choice,” said Ramaswamy.
In a video posted on X, Ramaswamy called the Colorado decision “a bastardization” of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. “This was a provision—Section 3—that was designed to bar Confederate members, people who switched to the Confederacy, from actually being able to serve. That’s very different than what’s at issue here, to say the least. This is a hollowed out husk of what the country was built on: the basic principle that ‘we the people’ select our leadership, not the unelected elite class in the back of palace halls,” he said.
“I think it’s up to Republicans to step up and stand up with a spine for our country’s future,” he said. “Yes, it would be easier for other Republicans like me who are running in this race to say, ‘Hey, if Trump is sidelined, there’s our opportunity.’ No doubt, other candidates are probably privately celebrating with their corporate sponsors. That’s not the right thing to do.”
In a response to Ramaswamy, the Colorado Republican Party wrote: “You won’t have to because we will withdraw from the Primary as a Party and convert to a pure caucus system if this is allowed to stand.”
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said “the last thing we want” is judges deciding who can and can’t be on the presidential ballot.
“I will tell you that I don’t think Donald Trump needs to be president. I think I need to be president. I think that’s good for the country,” Haley told reporters after a campaign event in Iowa. “But I will beat him fair and square. We don’t need to have judges making these decisions, we need voters to make these decisions.”
Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, told supporters at a town hall in New Hampshire: “I can’t comment on the opinion itself, because I want to read it first. But what I will say is this: I do not think Donald Trump should be prevented from being President of the United States by any court. I think he should be prevented from being President of the United States by the voters of this country.”
During a campaign event in Iowa, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to take Trump off the ballot was wrong and predicted that the U.S. Supreme Court would reverse it but warned that the left’s playbook was still working.
“Here’s the larger thing of what the Left and the media and the Democrats are doing. They are doing all this stuff to basically solidify support in the primary for him, get him into the general, and the whole general election is going to be all this legal stuff. Look, it’s unfair,” he told Iowa voters.
They’re abusing power — 100%. But the question is: is that going to work?
“I think they have a playbook that unfortunately will work. It’ll give Biden…the ability to skate through this thing. That’s their plan. That’s what they want. What they don’t want is to have somebody like me who will make the election not about those other issues, but make the election about the failures of Biden, the failures of the Left, and how we’re going to be able to turn the country around. If that’s how the election is framed, we will win…
“They’re doing this for a reason…Do we want to have 2024 to be about ‘this trail, that case, this case,’ having to put hundreds of millions of dollars into legal stuff or do we want 2024 to be about your issues, about the country’s future with a nominee that’s going to be able to prosecute that case against the Left?”
Independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. laid out his thoughts on the decision in a thread on X, saying the American people should be trusted to decide who they vote for.
“Every American should be troubled by the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to remove President Trump from the ballot. The court has deprived him of a consequential right without having been convicted of a crime,” Kennedy wrote.
This was done without an evidentiary hearing in which he is given the basic right of confronting his accusers.
When any candidate is deprived of his right to run, the American people are deprived of their right to choose. I hope the Colorado Supreme Court swiftly reverses this decision. At the very least, it contributes to the perception that the elites are picking the President by manipulating the legal system, and through other interventions.
If Trump is kept out of office through judicial fiat rather than being defeated in a fair election, his supporters will never accept the result. This country will become ungovernable.
It’s time to trust the voters. It is up to the people to decide who the best candidate is. Not the courts. The people. That’s Democracy 101.
Democrats, ironically, fully supported the undemocratic move.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) posted on X: “The Colorado Supreme Court just ruled Donald Trump is disqualified from the ballot — and from holding office — under the 14th Amendment. Accountability for inciting an insurrection. It’s about time.”
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) also posted: “Pleased the Colorado Supreme Court followed the Constitution. The Court appropriately held that Trump is disqualified from being in the ballot. As an impeachment manager, it was very clear to me that the evidence showed Trump called for and incited the mob on January 6.”
And Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) posted: “The Colorado Supreme Court has it right. The Constitution protects the right to vote and bars candidates who abuse the process or engage in insurrection. Donald Trump has done both.”
Joe Biden has not yet commented on the historic and controversial decision.