Vivek Ramaswamy Says He Won’t Be on Maine Ballot if Donald Trump Is Banned
The GOP contender challenged Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Chris Christie to do the same.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Republican longshot Vivek Ramaswamy vowed to drop out of the Maine GOP primary if the state successfully boots Donald Trump from its ballot, and challenged his rivals to do the same—doubling down on a commitment he made in Colorado amid an escalating legal controversy.
The former pusher of failed Alzheimer’s treatments took to X to lash Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ determination earlier this week that Trump had disqualified himself from re-election by illegally seeking to overturn his defeat at the hands of President Joe Biden.
Ramaswamy challenged Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Chris Christie to follow his lead and take themselves off the Maine ballot.
This is what an *actual* threat to democracy looks like. The system is hellbent on taking this man out, the Constitution be damned.
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 29, 2023
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… https://t.co/ucpTI7o86K
Ramaswamy made a similar dive for the spotlight after Colorado's Supreme Court ruled Trump’s actions leading up to his supporters’ bloody rampage through the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had rendered him ineligible for the presidency under the 14th Amendment. Ramaswamy’s electoral self-immolation is currently on hold, since the vanquished president got back on the Rocky Mountain state’s ballot pending a final determination by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court rejected a bid to remove Trump from the swing state’s ballot.
Maine and Colorado are both blue-leaning states with large red stretches, but the New England state awards its electoral votes by congressional district, which put a single elector in Trump’s column in 2020.
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