Text: Observer.com, Ruan Jiaqi.
As the largest vote base in the United States, California did not follow the footsteps of Colorado and Maine to become another blue state pioneer in "sniping" Trump.
Comprehensive American "Politico" news network, Fox News and other 29**, local time on Thursday, during Trump's first term of office, California, which was in constant opposition to him and even once clamored to "leave the United States", its Secretary of State Shirley Weber (Shirley Weber) announced later that he would retain Trump's qualification for the Republican primary in the state in 2024.
According to the report, earlier on whether to disqualify Trump from the primary, California Democrats continued to disagree. Lieutenant Gov. Eleni Kounalakis has worked to urge states to follow Colorado's lead and use legal means to kick Trump out of the primary. But Gov. Gavin Newsom, Secretary of State Webb and others have reacted lukewarmly, fearing that the strategy could backfire. Newsom last week called the move "political interference" and said it was up to voters to make the decision.
California Governor Gavin Newsom Infographic from Visual China.
The Hill has said that after Colorado, California is likely to be the next place to invoke the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban Trump from the state's primaries. After all, for Trump, California is a notoriously "thorn in the head".
In the words of Time magazine, California may be one of the "most radical" states in the United States, and there are almost no Republicans to be found in the entire state**. Whether it is immigration, taxation, health care policies, or Internet regulation and environmental issues, California's policies are opposed to those of Trump's administration, and the state has sued Trump 46 times in less than two years, firmly in the "anti-Trump" front.
In 2020, the people of California were even ready to launch a referendum, saying that if Trump was re-elected to the United States, they would "leave the United States" and establish an independent state through a referendum.
This time was no exception. Just after Colorado disqualified Trump from the primary, Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kunarakis, who is preparing to run for governor of California in 2026, sent a letter to Secretary of State Shirley Webb, who is in charge of the state's elections, urging the state to follow Colorado's lead and explore "all possible legal avenues" to remove Trump from the primary list, saying that "California must be on the right side of history."
However, the US media said that many of his Democratic colleagues reacted "obviously coldly" to this. An adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom believes that Kunarakis' strategy could ultimately backfire, "a move that could end up weakening the institutions you're trying to protect." ”
Newsom also made it clear last week that he does not support removing Mr. Trump. "There is no doubt that Trump poses a threat to our freedom and even to democracy," he said. But in California, we need to beat the candidates we don't like in the ballot. Everything else is political interference. ”
At the same time, Webb replied with a "sternly worded" letter from Kunarakis, reiterating that "the court should handle the controversy over Trump's candidacy" and saying that as California's chief election officer, he must put "the sanctity of elections above partisan politics."
Just hours after Maine also erased Trump's name from the ballot, late Thursday night local time, Webb announced that California was retaining Trump's party primary in the state.
Aleksandra Reetz, Kunarakis' deputy chief of staff, "downplayed" the controversy between the two sides, saying only that "honest people can have honest differences" and applauding the elections in Maine and Colorado for "respecting the rule of law," according to Politico News Network.
Evan Low, another Democratic representative in the state, was even more indignant. In an interview on Friday, he complained: "Republicans don't have fair competition. We're really nice people. In my opinion, this is a foolish move. ”
According to the report, Evan Law sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta in September, urging him to expedite his ruling on Trump's candidacy, but Bonta did not respond.
According to an earlier report by the Associated Press, in July this year, the California Republican Executive Committee overwhelmingly voted to pass a rule change bill that agreed that a Republican ** candidate who leads in the state's primary and receives more than half of the votes can get all 169 party representative votes, that is, "winner takes all."
According to the report, this will be very beneficial to Trump, who maintains an absolute lead in the party, and emphasizes that California has more representation seats than any other state, so getting a majority of more than 2,000 Republican delegates and winning the party's nomination is extremely "golden".
After setting a precedent in Colorado and historically removing Trump from the state's primary, other states are following suit.
On December 29, local time, Democratic Secretary of State of Maine Shenna Bellows announced that Trump's role in the 2021 Capitol Hill riot disqualified him, and according to Article 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the former Republican is prohibited from voting in the state's 2024 primary.
Trump can appeal to the Maine Superior Court within five days. The Secretary of State's order will not take effect until the court rules on the appeal. The Maine Superior Court must make a decision within 20 days. The Trump campaign has said it will appeal soon.
Maine Secretary of State Shanna Bellows Infographic from Visual China.
According to the New York Times, more than 30 states have so far filed lawsuits seeking to disqualify Trump from running, but most of them have been dismissed, and lawsuits are currently pending in 14 states. Minnesota and Michigan, among others, ruled in favor of Trump, while several states, including Oregon, have their rulings pending.
And until the Supreme Law makes a ruling, any state can apply its own criteria to decide whether Trump or anyone else can vote. The Trump campaign said it has appealed the Colorado ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court takes up, other states' indictments against Trump's candidacy could be put on hold.
Original title: "California, the largest ticket warehouse in the United States, announced: not to follow".