The Maine Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, recently announced that she had decided Trump was disqualified from appearing on the state’s ballot in 2024 because of January 6, 2021, which she decided was an “insurrection” and thus made him ineligible to run under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Now, a state legislator is working to impeach her over the decision.
As background, Bellows announced in a statement on the Trump run for president, “I conclude that Mr. Trump’s primary petition is invalid.” She continued, “Specifically, I find that the declaration on his candidate consent form is false because he is not qualified to hold the office of the President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The legislator who wants to impeach Secretary of State Bellows over the decision is GOP state Rep. John Andrews. In a letter announcing his attempt to impeach her under the state’s laws, he said, “I wish to file a Joint Order, or whichever is the proper parliamentary mechanism under Mason’s Rules, to impeach Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.”
Continuing the letter, Bellows argued that he has the right to impeach her because she is trying to bar Trump, a citizen not convicted of any crime, from running, saying, “I wish to impeach Secretary Bellows on the grounds that she is barring an American citizen and 45th President of the United States, who is convicted of no crime or impeachment, their right to appear on a Maine Republican Primary ballot.”
He then argued that Trump meets the qualifications for the GOP ballot and so should be allowed on it, saying, “Donald J. Trump has met all qualifications for the March 2024 Republican Presidential Primary. He should be allowed on the ballot. This is raw partisanship and has no place in the offices of our state’s Constitutional Officers.”
Tearing into Bellows on social media, Rep. Andrews also said, “This is hyper-partisanship on full display. A Secretary of State APPOINTED by legislative Democrats bans President Trump from the 2024 ballot so that she can jockey for position in the 2026 Democrat Primary for Governor. Banana Republic isn’t just a store at the mall.”
Rep. Andrews also spoke about the situation, particularly the manner by which Secretary of state Bellows came into her power, to Fox News Digital, saying, “In Maine, the people do not elect the Secretary of State, Attorney General or Treasurer. They are chosen by elected Democrat Party insiders after deals are made in the back room of State House.”
Continuing, Rep. Andrews then bashed the partisan nature of Secretary of State Bellows’s power, saying, “Shenna Bellows knows that the process that put her there is extremely partisan. She should know better and be going out of her way to be as neutral as possible to serve every citizen in Maine and not just registered Democrats.” He added, “That’s why she swore an oath to the Constitution and not the Democrat Party. We are still a republic, but moves like this fracture that foundation, which ultimately is the point of all this.”
Featured image credit: By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America – John Andrews, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=110097975
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