US presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has pledged to withdraw from the Colorado Republican party’s primary ballot until the state restores former President Donald Trump’s name as a contender.
Voting in the primaries in each state determines who will represent the party in the national presidential election. On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled by a margin of four to three that Trump had “engaged in insurrection,” and was therefore ineligible to run for office in the state. The court deemed him responsible for inciting his supporters to storm the US Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.
Ramaswamy vowed to pull out of the state’s primary unless Trump is reinstated. “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,” the Republican added.
“This is what an actual attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and unprecedented decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado,” Ramaswamy concluded.
Ron DeSantis, who is the governor of Florida, told Newsmax on Wednesday that he will not remove himself from the ballot, as that would be “playing into the Left.” He believes the ruling will eventually be overturned by the US Supreme Court. “I do anticipate that that decision was political and will get reversed,” he said.
The Colorado Supreme Court justices who barred Trump were all appointed by Democratic governors, the New York Times noted on Wednesday. Trump has promised to appeal the decision in the US Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority.
The ruling does not prevent Trump from running in other states across the country.
The former president also currently faces 91 felony counts in four ongoing criminal cases in Washington, New York, Florida, and Georgia, in addition to the January 6 accusations.