FRESNO, CA (KMJ) Gov. Gavin Newsom wants former President Donald Trump on the California ballot in 2024, unlike his Lt. Governor.
“There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a threat to our liberties and even to our democracy,” Newsom said in a statement. “But in California, we defeat candidates at the polls. Everything else is a political distraction.”
The statement from Newsom, which surprised many on the left, comes days after Trump was disqualified from appearing on Colorado’s Republican primary ballot.
The order has been stayed pending a final ruling from the Supreme Court.
The effort to boot Trump from the California ballot came into focus after the Democratic Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis asked the Secretary of State to replicate the Colorado result. “I urge you to explore every legal option to remove former President Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential primary ballot,” Kounalakis wrote to Secretary of State Shirley Weber.
“This decision is about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of our democracy,” she added speaking of the Colorado ruling.
A few months ago, a handful of state lawmakers asked the California Attorney General to determine whether the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment bars Trump from the ballot for having “engaged in insurrection.”
Trump has not been charged or convicted of engaging in “insurrection’.
“The purpose of this letter is to request in haste the office of the attorney general seek the court opinion as to whether or not Donald J. Trump should be removed from the ballot of the presidential primary election scheduled in California on March 5, 2024,” the letter says. It describes Mr. Trump’s actions and tells Attorney General Rob Bonta, “You are uniquely positioned to proactively seek the court’s opinion to confirm Mr. Trump’s inability to hold office given these facts.”
Eight members of the California Assembly — Mike Fong, Mike Gipson, Corey Jackson, Alex Lee, Evan Low, Kevin McCarty, Stephanie Nguyen and Philip Ting — and one member of the California Senate, Josh Becker, signed the letter. All nine are Democrats.
Assemblyman Low claimed he and the other lawmakers were “trying to not make this a political issue but rather a constitutionality issue.”
