The Colorado Republican Party has said they will switch their presidential nominating process from a primary to a caucus system if the ruling to keep former President Donald Trump off the ballot stands.
On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified President Donald Trump from appearing on the 2024 GOP presidential primary ballot.
"A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution," the ruling said. "Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot.”
The lawsuit was filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), a Washington D.C.-based watchdog group. They argued that former President Trump was involved in aiding an insurrection on January 6, 2021 — and therefore ineligible to run in the 2024 election.
In response to the news, Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary until Trump is also allowed to be on the ballot — and challenged other candidates to do the same.
"I pledge to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary ballot until Trump is also allowed to be on the ballot, and I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley do the same immediately - or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country," Ramaswamy wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. You won't have to because we will withdraw from the Primary as a Party and convert to a pure caucus system if this is allowed to stand.
— Colorado Republican Party (@cologop) December 20, 2023
The Colorado Republican Party responded to Ramaswamy's post, saying, "You won't have to because we will withdraw from the Primary as a Party and convert to a pure caucus system if this is allowed to stand."
The Hill reports, "The Colorado Supreme Court put its ruling on hold until Jan. 4 to allow Trump to seek review from the U.S. Supreme Court. If he does, the former president’s name automatically remains on the ballot until the justices resolve the appeal."
Trump has indicated that he intends to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority.
