Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) criticized the decision by the Maine secretary of state to bar former President Trump from the primary ballot Thursday, saying he should only be left off if convicted of a crime.
The moderate Democrat said he believes Trump is responsible for the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, but that he should still be on the electoral ballot.
“I voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the January 6th insurrection. I do not believe he should be re-elected as President of the United States,” Golden said in a statement. “However, we are a nation of laws, therefore until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should not be allowed on the ballot.”
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D) decided that Trump’s Jan. 6 conducted violated the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause” which prevents those who assist in rebellions against the country from holding office.
The landmark decision makes Maine the second state to remove Trump from their primary ballot, after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled the same last week.
In her 34-page decision Thursday, Bellows said that her determination was limited to Maine’s election laws and not reliant on court decisions — or lack of court decisions — about Trump’s conduct.
“The oath I swore to uphold the Constitution comes first above all, and my duty under Maine’s election laws, when presented with a Section 336 challenge, is to ensure that candidates who appear on the primary ballot are qualified for the office they seek,” she wrote.
Trump’s attorneys made similar claims that Bellows was not qualified to make the determination, and that it should be left to a judge.
“Complexity is not a limitation on my authority…These statutes do not suggest that I am restricted to adjudicating straightforward questions of law or fact,” she continued. “Mr. Trump’s concerns about the inadequacy of these proceedings are therefore without merit.”
On them merits of the decision, Bellows said Trump “used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters” on Jan. 6 and “was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use, given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it.”
The Trump campaign also criticized the decision and pledged to appeal it.
“We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said. “Make no mistake, these partisan election interference efforts are a hostile assault on American democracy.”