Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy pledged on Tuesday to withdraw from the Republican primary in Colorado in protest of the state’s Supreme Court removing former President Donald Trump from the ballot.
The ruling, which disqualified the former president based on charges of “insurrection,” is also being protested by Ramaswamy’s fellow candidates, as well as the Republican Party itself.
As Valuetainment previously reported, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday night that former President Trump is ineligible to appear on the state’s ballot, citing the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment. In this unprecedented 4-3 decision, the court determined that Trump’s alleged role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot prevents him from being considered as both a listed candidate and write-in option, leaving Colorado residents unable to vote for him. The decision is currently on hold until an appeals hearing on Jan. 4.
In an X post shared just moments after the ruling was made public, Ramaswamy condemned what he called “a bastardization of the 14th Amendment” and “a hollowed-out husk of what the country was built on.”
“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 the accompanying message.
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… pic.twitter.com/qbpNf9L3ln
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 20, 2023
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In a separate statement to ABC News, Ramaswamy admitted that while it would certainly be easier to win without Trump on the ballot, the issue is much bigger than one person’s political ambitions.
“To tell you the truth, it would be a lot easier for me to get elected if Trump wasn’t in this race, but … it’s not about me, and it’s not about another candidate,” he said. “This is wrong. And I think that this is a flagrant violation of the rule of law.”
In response to Ramaswamy’s first statement, the Colorado Republican Party reassured him that his withdrawal would not be necessary because “we will withdraw from the Primary as a Party and convert to a pure caucus system if this is allowed to stand.”
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
While this move would likely require a rule change from the Republican National Committee, which has already approved the structure of the state’s primary, the chairman of the Colorado GOP is confident that a waiver could be obtained.
The Colorado ruling was also condemned by other candidates in the 2024 presidential race, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who denounced the decision as an abuse of judicial power.
The Left invokes “democracy” to justify its use of power, even if it means abusing judicial power to remove a candidate from the ballot based on spurious legal grounds. SCOTUS should reverse. https://t.co/D4pCzZ7FhY
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 20, 2023
Even former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has previously called the former president a criminal and a coward, was displeased by the court’s decision. “Donald Trump should not be prevented from being President by any court,” he told a crowd of supporters. “He should be prevented from being President of the United States by the voters of this country.”
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who hopes to be a spoiler to both Trump and current President Joe Biden, called for the “troubling” decision to be reversed. “The court has deprived him of a consequential right without having been convicted of a crime,” Kennedy said. “This was done without an evidentiary hearing in which he is given the basic right of confronting his accusers.”
The court has deprived him of a consequential right without having been convicted of a crime.
This was done without an evidentiary hearing in which he is given the basic right of confronting his accusers.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) December 20, 2023
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has yet to issue a statement on the ruling, and none of the candidates have expressed an intention to withdraw from the Colorado Republican primary.
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