California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) criticized his party’s effort to block former president Donald Trump from California’s 2024 presidential-primary ballot after the Colorado supreme court removed Trump from its state’s ballot this week.
“There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a threat to our liberties and even to our democracy, but in California, we defeat candidates at the polls,” Newsom said Friday in a statement. “Everything else is a political distraction.”
His remarks come two days after California lieutenant governor Eleni Kounalakis (D.) wrote a letter to California secretary of state Shirley Weber (D.), asking her to “explore every legal option” to remove Trump from the state’s primary ballot in light of the Colorado supreme court’s decision. On Tuesday, the court ruled 4–3 that Trump is ineligible to run for president again because he allegedly incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021.
“The Colorado decision can be the basis for a similar decision here in our state. The constitution is clear: you must be 35 years old and not be an insurrectionist,” the letter read.
Under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, no person can assume public office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. However, a Colorado district court concluded last month that the so-called insurrection clause “did not intend to include the President as ‘an officer of the United States’. . . [or] a person who had only taken the Presidential oath.”
The Colorado supreme court overturned that ruling. The new decision is stayed until January 4 pending the Trump campaign’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will likely take up the case.
Kounalakis urged Weber to take Trump off California’s ballot by December 28, which is when the secretary of state will announce the certified list of presidential candidates for the March 5 primary election.
Weber issued a letter in response on Friday, indicating she has not made a final decision on the matter but that her “office will continue to assess all our options” as the legal situation develops.
“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 wrote to Kounalakis.
“I am guided by my commitment to follow the rule of law,” she added. “As such, it is incumbent upon my office to ensure that any action undertaken regarding any candidate’s inclusion or omission from our ballots be grounded firmly in the laws and processes in place in California and our Constitution.”