Why Trump’s battles elsewhere matter to Georgia voters
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Donald Trump will appear on Michigan primary ballots, according to a ruling by that state’s Supreme Court on Monday.
It’s a direct contradiction to a decision reached a week earlier by the Supreme Court in Colorado, where justices there barred the former president’s name from appearing on ballots in a decision widely expected to be eventually settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Colorado case was the only successful effort out of about a dozen similar cases brought against Trump.
It sent shock waves through the national political scene and could serve to energize Trump’s base and all-important independent voters.
“Politically, this could very well play in Donald Trump’s favor because people will see it as unfair,” said political strategist Brian Robinson.
“Donald Trump has laid the groundwork for being able to say, ‘the system is rigged against me.’ When these types of decisions from the judiciary come down, it’s just going to put gas in the tank of those theories and people who him will believe those theories even more if there’s evidence that what he’s saying is right.”
The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision was based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars American officeholders who have “engaged in insurrection and rebellion” from holding future offices that require an oath to the Constitution. The court’s claim was that Trump engaged in insurrection during the deadly events of January 6th, 2020, when a mob of his ers violently stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Indeed, Trump is currently facing federal charges for his role in the events, but his trial has yet to begin.
“I’m all for the judiciary holding people able for their actions but Donald Trump hasn’t been convicted of anything at this juncture,” said Robinson. “People around him have been, there are cases pending against him, but until those cases are resolved the judiciary should not be weighing in on who should be on the ballot. Until someone is convicted, they should be able to go through the same process as any other candidate.”
Robinson says even with no case pending in Georgia, the ongoing court battles over ballots elsewhere could certainly impact voters in Georgia, especially independents.
“Whoever wins is going to win by a pretty small margin, more than likely,” he said. “So there could be any number of small issues that impact who gets just over the line and gets our 16 electoral votes.”
The case isn’t without some precedent in Georgia. In the direct wake of the Capitol riots, groups lobbied the courts to keep Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene off the ballot in Georgia. The effort fell flat and she went on to be re-elected.
For Robinson, the case with Trump is clear: voters should decide who holds the White House, not courts.
“We have a jury of millions of people here in this country – they know what the facts are as it pertains to President Trump and they have already made their opinions up on whether or not he is guilty of one crime or another,” he said. “Until somebody is convicted of a crime, they should not be treated as a criminal.”
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