Leading New Hampshire lawmakers, such as the president of the State Senate as well as the speaker of the State House, wrote to Secretary of State David Scanlan this week, arguing that, contrary to what some anti-Trump legal experts have claimed, “there is not a legal basis” to remove former President Trump from the presidential ballot in 2024 via the Fourteenth Amendment.
Senate President Jeb Bradley (R), NH House Speaker Sherman Packard (R), as well as former United States Senator Bob Smith (R) are among the dozens of New Hampshire officials, such as state senators, representatives, and company executives, who signed the letter. The Trump campaign sent out an email to inform the press about the letter.
“President Donald Trump is once more at the center of political attacks,” the letter says. “This time, people are trying to keep the former President from being on the presidential primary ballot in New Hampshire by using Section Three from the Fourteenth Amendment against him.”
It goes on:
“Since 1920, New Hampshire has taken great satisfaction in being the first state in the union to have primary elections and in laying the groundwork for subsequent states. But that position is now in danger because of a crazy idea that President Trump, who is currently the front-runner in New Hampshire, shouldn’t be on the ticket.”
“These claims can’t be upheld in a real court of law because they have no legal basis. People who keep up this fraud against the will of the majority of the population are just trying to insult democracy and take away the rights of all voters as well as the former President. People who want to keep voters from supporting the candidate of their choosing are just political pawns for the Left carrying out their work, which is sad because the Democrat Party has always tried to take New Hampshire off the list of states with the most votes.”
The main reason for taking Trump off the vote is that he took part in a rebellion on January 6, 2021. Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment says that a person can’t hold office if they try to start a rebellion, but it’s not clear if this law also applies to the president or vice president. The law theory says that the secretaries of state along with other local officials should stop Trump from being on the presidential votes in their states.
As noted by WMUR, Scanlan spoke with Corky Messner, the unsuccessful GOP senatorial candidate from New Hampshire, who was investigating a legal challenge.
“When someone makes a good argument about what these provisions mean, I feel like I have to make an effort to listen to them,” Scanlan said.
“It’s very unusual for a decision of that size to say that a person isn’t eligible to run for office,” he said. “And it really does need to be taken that seriously.”