In an unexpected move on Thursday, Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows released a 34-page ruling stating Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the ballot.
The ruling from Bellows states that Trump’s “primary petition is invalid” under the Fourteenth Amendment’s insurrectionist ban.
In a statement to the New York Post, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheug blasted Bellows, calling her a “virulent leftist” and a “hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat.”
He added the campaign would “quickly file a legal objection in state court to prevent this atrocious decision in a Maine from taking effect.”
Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy posted on X, “This is what an *actual* threat to democracy looks like.
Ramaswamy added, “I stand by my prior pledge to *withdraw* from any state’s ballot that ultimately removes Trump from its ballot.”
“I call on DeSantis, Christie, and Haley to do the same – or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal and brazen election interference in the GOP primary. This cancer in American politics isn’t limited to the Democrats,” he continued.
Bellows, in the decision, said that she “carefully considered the arguments proffered by the parties” in the case and took her role “extremely seriously.”
Written in the decision, and part of Bellows reasoning for the ruling, was that