Governor Ron DeSantis plans to compete in Colorado even if former President Donald Trump does not appear on the primary ballot following a ruling from the state Supreme Court.
Pharmaceutical entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy announced shortly after the Dec. 19 ruling was released that he plans to remove himself from the ballot in Colorado if the former president is barred from being listed.
DeSantis said removing himself from the ballot would be “playing into the left” and that the state’s recent ruling “will get overturned by the [United States] Supreme Court.”
“I’ve qualified for all the ballots. I’m competing in all the states and I’m going to accumulate the delegates necessary,” DeSantis continued. “That is the whole name of the game in this situation.”
“But I do anticipate that the decision was political and will get reversed,” the governor added. WATCH🚨: Ron DeSantis says he will not follow Vivek Ramaswamy’s lead and withdraw from the Colorado primary if Donald Trump is not on the ballot. pic.twitter.com/dXcwCh7XGJ
— Officer Lew (@officer_Lew) December 20, 2023
Ramaswamy, who is currently polling in fourth place behind Trump, DeSantis, and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said in a video on X that the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling was unconstitutional. He called the decision a “bastardization of the Fourteenth Amendment of our U.S. Constitution.”
"This was a provision that was designed to bar Confederate members — people who had switched from the Confederacy from actually being able to serve," said the Ohio native. "That's very different than what's at issue here to say the least."
He urged the other Republican presidential hopefuls to follow suit and plan to withdraw in the event that Trump is not restored to the ballot.
"Or else these Republicans are simply complicit in this unconstitutional attack on the way we conduct our constitutional republic," added Ramaswamy. "I refuse to be complicit in that."
The Colorado Republican Party responded to his statement with its own plan.
“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 organization wrote on X.
The Colorado Supreme Court disqualified Trump from the 2024 primary after ruling he violated the insurrection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“Lawsuits challenging Trump's candidacy have been filed in more than 25 states ahead of the 2024 election, though the Colorado case brought on behalf of six voters marks the most immediate threat to his campaign,” reports CBS News.
Trump is currently leading in the polls with 62% support according to FiveThirtyEight.
DeSantis denounced the Colorado ruling while speaking in Iowa on Dec. 20, arguing that it strengthened support for Trump.
“What the left and the media and the Democrats are doing — they’re doing all this stuff, to basically solidify support in the primary for him, get him into the general, and the whole general election is going to be all this legal stuff,” he said, per The Hill.
