California Secretary of State Keeps Trump's Name on California Primary Ballot

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber included Donald Trump’s name on a list of certified candidates for California’s Republican presidential primary published late Thursday, ending speculation that California would become the latest state to preemptively bar the former president from the ballot.

Weber’s move came as she faced pressure to follow in the Colorado Supreme Court’s footsteps, which ruled Trump ineligible last week to appear on that state’s primary ballot. Earlier Thursday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows took unilateral action to remove Trump from the presidential primary ballot there.

Four justices in Colorado wrote a majority decision determining that Trump’s role in the 2021 attack on the Capitol amounted to engaging in an insurrection, thus rendering Trump ineligible for office under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Weber faced immediate calls to disqualify Trump from the ballot in California, including from the state’s lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis.

“The Colorado decision can be the basis for a similar decision here in our state,” Kounalakis wrote to Weber in a letter last week. “The constitution is clear: you must be 35 years old and not be an insurrectionist.”

In a sharply-worded response last Friday, Weber said, “Removing a candidate from the ballot under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is not something my office takes lightly and is not as simple as the requirement that a person be at least 35 years old to be president.”

Weber indicated that the courts, not the state’s top election official, are the best venue for challenges to Trump’s electoral eligibility.

“California’s Elections Code provides the foundation for resolution of ballot challenges, including those related to candidate eligibility to appear on a ballot, by our courts,” she wrote.

Trump is expected to appeal the Colorado ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could provide greater clarity to ballot challenges working their way through courts across the country.

Multiple 14th Amendment lawsuits were filed to keep Trump off the ballot in California, and similar efforts were rejected in Michigan and Oregon.

Trump has blasted the Colorado ruling as an unfair gambit meant to block his path back to the Oval Office. Even some opponents of the former president, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have questioned the idea of ending Trump’s campaign in court rather than at the polls.

Legal precedents reached in earlier California cases also shed doubt on whether Weber had any power to remove candidates from the ballot absent a court order.

California State Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine) said he will introduce legislation in January to require the Secretary of State to determine a candidate’s eligibility. But that legislation would not take effect in time to impact the March primary.

Weber sent the certified list of candidates to county election officials on Thursday, hours after resolving a ballot dispute in a Central Valley congressional race.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled against Weber when she granted an emergency petition from state Assemblymember Vince Fong to appear on the ballot in the race for the House of Representatives in California’s 20th congressional district.

Weber argued Fong was ineligible to run for the seat being vacated by Rep. Kevin McCarthy because Fong had already filed to run for re-election to the Assembly. However, Judge Shelleyanne W. L. Chang said that rule does not apply to California’s primary election.