Why Maine’s top election official has withdrawn Trump from the 2024 primary

With over 61% approval among Republican voters, Donald Trump stands as the favorite candidate to represent the Great Old Party in the 2024 US presidential elections. However, things are getting more and more interesting by the week as two states have already excluded him from the primary election ballots: Colorado, and more recently, Maine.

Who is Shenna Bellows, who removed Trump in Maine?

Shenna Bellows, the Secretary of State, made the unilateral decision to remove the Republican from the 2024 primary ballot. She argued that his role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection violates Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. This section states that anyone who has “engaged in insurrection” is barred from holding public office.

Bellows’ decision came after a public hearing on the matter, just a day after Trump’s lawyers requested her to “disqualify” herself due to a series of posts on X (the platform formally known as Twitter), where she lamented that the former president had not been convicted for the aforementioned events.

Was Maine a key state in Trump’s 2020 campaign?

While Trump’s exclusion from the Colorado primary ballots caused a stir among his supporters, Colorado is known for its Democratic leanings, so significant competition among its electoral voters was not anticipated.

In Maine, however, the situation is different as the state has a total of four electoral votes, which are divided: two go for the state-wide vote and the other two are allocated for each Congressional district. In 2020, Trump secured one of the electoral votes, so his exclusion could pose a risk to his campaign due to the narrow margin of decision.

Thoughts now turn to Trump’s legal case for appeal.