California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has opted to leave former President Donald Trump's name on the state's presidential primary ballot, despite calls from the state's lieutenant governor to remove him.
Weber, a Democrat, did not issue a comment after her office released the full list of certified candidates for the March 5 primary with Trump's name included on it.
Weber last week said her office would be guided by its "commitment to and respect for the rule of law" after Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis sent her an open letter calling for Trump's name to be excluded.
"Removing a candidate from the ballot under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment is not something my office takes lightly and is not as simple as the requirement that a person be at least 35 years old to be president," she added.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, opposed removing Trump's name, saying he should be defeated at the polls.
"There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a threat to our liberties and even to our democracy, but in California, we defeat candidates at the polls. Everything else is a political distraction," Newsom said in a statement last week, reports Politico.
Other Democrats in California, though, joined with Kounalakis to call to remove Trump after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled to remove him based on the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment "insurrection clause," a Civil War-era rule prohibiting people who have participated in an insurrection from holding office in the United States.
Maine's Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, also a Democrat, on Thursday announced that Trump would not be included on that state's ballot, while Michigan ruled that he would remain.
Weber had faced a Thursday deadline for certifying the list of official candidates in California so that ballots could be prepared for the upcoming primary election, reports The New York Times.
Democrats control California's government, so many considered a ballot challenge likely there, notes the Times.
However, legal experts said California doesn't give its secretary of state the full authority to disqualify a presidential candidate.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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