Colorado puts Trump back on 2024 GOP primary ballot while ruling is appealed

Colorado’s secretary of state said Thursday that former President Donald Trump will remain on the 2024 primary ballot for certification next week, as the state Republican Party appeals a court ruling that had found him ineligible for office earlier this month.

“With the appeal filed, Donald Trump will be included as a candidate on Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot when certification occurs on January 5, 2024, unless the US Supreme Court declines to take the case or otherwise affirms the Colorado Supreme Court ruling,” Jena Griswold’s office said in a press release.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on Dec. 19 that the former president could not receive the Republican nomination because he had unconstitutionally participated in an “insurrection” against the US government on Jan. 6, 2021.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment includes a clause that bars those who have taken an oath of office from being elected again to govern if they have violated the Constitution by having “engaged in insurrection or rebellion.”

“Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and was disqualified under the Constitution from the Colorado Ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court got it right. This decision is now being appealed,” Griswold said in a separate statement. “I urge the US Supreme Court to act quickly given the upcoming presidential primary election.”

On Wednesday, the Colorado Republican Party asked the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling from their state’s high court, saying the party “has been irreparably harmed by the decision” to disqualify the 77-year-old ex-president.

“The state has interfered in the primary election by unreasonably restricting the Party’s ability to select its candidates,” states the 45-page petition from the Colorado GOP and the nonprofit American Center for Law and Justice.

“As a natural and inevitable result, the state has interfered with the Party’s ability to place on the general election ballot the candidate of its choice. And it has done so based on a subjective claim of insurrection the state lacks any constitutional authority to make.”

The high court has yet to make a decision on the ruling, which would need to occur before a Jan. 5 deadline for candidate names to be certified by both parties for the Colorado ballot.

The Colorado court in its decision cited a prior ruling by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, who oversees the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes the Centennial State

Attorneys for Trump have yet to appeal the Colorado ruling to the Supreme Court.

The Colorado Supreme Court stayed its ruling rendering Trump ineligible until Jan. 4, 2024, but the US Supreme Court may still issue its own stay of the decision ahead of its first conference day of the new year, which falls on Jan. 5.

The Centennial State will host its primary on March 5, the day after the former president is scheduled to appeal in Washington, DC, federal court on his four-count indictment for trying to overturn the 2020 election results.

Trump remains the favorite for the 2024 Republican nomination by more than 50 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, with competitors Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley in a distant second and third place, respectively.

The former president is also leading President Biden in recent surveys, including in several swing states that he lost to the Democrat in 2020.