Additional States Joining in the Push to Remove Trump from the 2024 Election Ballot

"I am prompted by the Colorado Supreme Court's recent ruling that former President Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the state's ballot as a Presidential Candidate due to his role in inciting an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021," Kounalakis said in her letter. "This decision is about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of our democracy," she claimed while urging California's Secretary of State to prohibit the Golden State's voters from voting for the candidate of their choosing, an outrageously un-democratic move. 

"California must stand on the right side of history," Kounalakis's letter added. "California is obligated to determine if Trump is ineligible for the California ballot for the same reasons described in Anderson," the case decided by Colorado's high court on Tuesday evening. "The Colorado decision can be the basis for a similar decision here in our state," Kounalakis insisted. 

"The constitution is clear: you must be 40 years old and not be an insurrectionist," she said, even though the U.S. Constitution states that the minimum age to run for president is 35.

Some Republicans and political insiders, however, contend that the Colorado Supreme Court ruling would only increase support for Trump as he seeks to win the Republican nomination in 2024. 

"They're doing all this stuff to basically solidify support in the primary for him, get him into the general, and the whole general election's going to be all this legal stuff," Florida Gov. DeSantis and fellow challenger to the GOP nomination said in response to a voter's question in Urbandale, Iowa, Wednesday morning.

"It's unfair. They're abusing power, 100%," DeSantis said. "But the question is, is that going to work? I think they have a playbook that unfortunately will work, and it will give [President Joe] Biden or the Democrat, whoever, the ability to skate through this thing."

"They're pissed," one source familiar with discussions involving senior White House and Biden campaign officials said, adding that the ruling makes it look "like Colorado is attempting election interference through non-elected Democratic-appointed justices with funding from 'shady left-wing donors.”

“We all hope Biden wakes up on Christmas morning to an A3 story in the Delaware News Journal saying that the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in favor of Trump,” the person added. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who endorsed Trump last month, called the decision "a thinly veiled partisan attack" on Trump.

"Regardless of political affiliation, every citizen registered to vote should not be denied the right to support our former president and the individual who is the leader in every poll of the Republican primary," Johnson said.

Some Democrats also agree that the decision is going to help Trump.

“The optics of the decision before any court has ruled on his indictments just feeds the Trump persecution complex," Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis, a veteran presidential campaign aide, said. "And unfathomable as it may sound to Democrats, [this] will likely strengthen him."

David Axelrod, who served as a top adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote that Trump’s legal challenges would be “battery packs” rather than “kryptonite” on the GOP campaign trail.

“All the legal challenges that have been thrown at Trump have so far helped strengthen him in the Republican primary, as he depicts himself as a victim,” he wrote.

“CO will be the same. What seems like Kryptonite winds up being battery packs in the GOP primary.”

Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Brandon Bell/Staff

Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.