Trump will be on GOP primary ballot in Connecticut

January 20, 2024 3:24 am
• Last Updated: January 20, 2024 3:24 am

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures after speaking at a campaign event in Concord, N.H., Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Ending any lingering doubt, Secretary of the State Pauline Thomas on Friday morning declared that Donald Trump will definitely be on Connecticut’s GOP primary ballot in April.

A review by her legal team determined that state statutes are clear that Trump is entitled to be on the presidential preference ballot. State law is different in Maine, where Thomas’ counterpart concluded Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol made him ineligible to run under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

But Thomas told reporters at the Capitol said Connecticut law prevents her from taking that action because it lays out just one benchmark for prospective candidates: Their campaigns must be “generally and seriously advocated or recognized according to reports in the national or state news media.”

Assessing whether Trump was complicit in insurrection isn’t in her power, state lawyers advised her.

“I asked them to research whether or not that was a decision that could be made by our office,” she said. As we have seen with many other states across the country, it is not within our jurisdiction. A court would need to make that decision.”