
AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine became the second U.S. state to block former president Donald Trump from its presidential primary ballot, but the first in which a state official made the decision, rather than a court.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ruled Thursday that Trump’s primary petition is invalid under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in a 34-page decision responding to three challenges to Trump’s ballot presence. The cited federal law bars anyone who’s participated in an insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. government from holding office, saying that someone who has taken the oath to uphold the Constitution, then attacks the U.S. government, has violated that oath.
The challenges that Bellows ruled on were filed by Maine citizens, with one from a trio that includes two Republican former state senators.
“I am mindful that no secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” Bellows, a Democrat, wrote in her decision. “I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection.”
On Dec. 19, Colorado’s Supreme Court also disqualified Trump from its primary ballot, an action that’s being challenged by the state’s Republican party, which has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in. The high court hasn’t yet indicated when, or if, it will.
Question: What happens next?
Answer: Trump says he’ll appeal Bellows’ decision. The appeal must be filed in Maine Superior Court by Jan. 17. Maine’s presidential primary is March 5. Until the appeal is filed or the deadline runs out, Bellows has “suspended the effects of her decision,” meaning he remains on the ballot.
Maine’s primary is March 5, and the ballot must be ready by Feb. 4, which is when municipal clerks make absentee ballots available.
Q: How can a secretary of state make this decision when other states, like New Hampshire, addressed it through the court system?
A: The secretary of state in Maine is charged with preparing the state’s ballot. Under Maine law, the first step in disqualifying a candidate from the ballot is a citizen’s petition to the secretary of state, which is why Bellows made the decision, rather than a court. Every state has different laws regarding how such challenges are addressed. Maine’s law calls for the secretary of state to hold a public hearing on the citizens’ petitions, which Bellows did on Dec. 15. You can watch it on YouTube. She also allowed both sides to submit additional arguments after the Colorado decision, on Dec. 19.
New Hampshire’s District Court rejected a challenge on the same constitutional grounds in September, and an appeal court upheld the decision in November. Trump is on the Granite State’s Jan. 23 primary ballot, along with 23 other Republican candidates.
The 24 GOP candidates on the New Hampshire primary ballot do not include John Anthony Castro, a Republican candidate for president from Texas, who filed the suit. Castro filed lawsuits in 21 states to remove Trump from the ballot, saying the former president is not qualified because of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Castro voluntarily withdrew his challenge in some states and in others, like New Hampshire, a judge dismissed it. In New Hampshire, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph LaPlante ruled that because Castro is not an official candidate in the New Hampshire primary, he had no standing to file the challenge. As with many of the court rulings rejecting challenges so far, LaPlante did not address the constitutional issue.
Q: What is the constitutional issue Bellows used to back her decision?
A: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which has never been used to keep a candidate off a presidential election ballot until the Dec. 19 Colorado court ruling.
The 14th Amendment was made part of the Constitution in 1869, and set forth equal protection and due process guarantees. Section 3 of the five-section amendment was designed to keep former Confederates from running for office, since they were part of the movement that seceded from the United States and fought to overthrow its government.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment says:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Bellows, in her decision, said, “The record establishes that Mr. Trump, over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power. I likewise conclude that Mr. Trump was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it.
“Mr. Trump’s occasional requests that rioters be peaceful and support law enforcement do not immunize his actions. A brief call to obey the law does not erase conduct over the course of months, culminating in his speech on The Ellipse. The weight of the evidence makes clear that Mr. Trump was aware of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort to delegitimize a democratic election, and then chose to light a match.”
Q. What role can the U.S. Supreme Court play?
A. The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to hear the Colorado case, and its ruling can set a precedent for similar cases. The Supreme Court rules on federal issues, not on state law, so arguments for and against may split hairs along those lines. If the court rules that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment doesn’t apply to Trump, it invalidates challenges based on that premise.
Q. Trump called Bellows a “virulent liberal” and said her ruling is political. Is she? Is it?
A. Bellows is a Democrat, appointed by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills in late 2020 and sworn in Jan. 4, 2021. She has tweeted in the past that the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol was an insurrection, and criticized the U.S. Senate for not voting to impeach Trump. She is a former director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Maine, and before her appointment by Mills was executive director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine for two years. As a state senator, she advocated for voting rights and Maine’s ranked-choice voting system.
While most of that qualifies her as a liberal, which is a subjective term, her 34-page ruling is based on law and fact, and she outlines the process she followed, as laid out by Maine law, when presented with the three citizen’s petitions.
Bellows wrote in the decision that it is based on “the record before me,” and not personal opinion.
Q: National TV pundits are divided between whether Maine is a red state, a blue state, progressive, backward, or whatever. What IS Maine?
A. Maine in the 2020 election divided its four electoral votes between Trump and Biden. Each congressional district gets two votes, and Maine’s second district, which comprises about three-quarters of the state’s land mass, voted for Trump. That said, District 2 re-elected Jared Golden, a Democrat, by a healthy margin. Maine’s two U.S. senators are Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Maine’s other state representative, Chellie Pingree, is a Democrat.
Maine is a politically savvy state that consistently has one of the highest voting participation rates in the country, including 61.8% in the 2022 general election. Its voters tend to favor common-sense candidates, and its people elected some of the 20th century’s most highly regarded politicians. One was former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, a Democrat, who was Senate majority leader from 1989-1995, and as a special envoy to Northern Ireland brokered the Good Friday Agreement. Edmund Muskie, a Democrat, who as a U.S. senator was instrumental in writing and enacting the historic Clean Water Act, and also was U.S. secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter. Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican, was the first woman to serve as both a U.S. representative and U.S. senator. She was the first senator to denounce McCarthyism, with her 1950 “Declaration of Conscience” speech and was the first woman to have her name placed in nomination to the presidency by one of the two major parties, in 1964, when she came in second on the final ballot for the nomination to Barry Goldwater.
So, Maine can’t be nailed down as red or blue, but definitely is not a political backwater.

Q: Who are the Maine citizens who filed the initial petitions?
A.: The citizens’ petitions were made by:
- Kimberly Rosen a Republican former state senator from Bucksport; Tom Saviello, a Republican former state senator from Wilton; and Ethan Strimling, a Democrat state senator from Portland, who in a group challenge contended that Trump is barred from office because he engaged in insurrection as defined by Section 2 of the 14th Amendment. They filed their challenge Dec. 8.
- Mary Ann Royal, of Winterport, who alleged that Trump violated his oath of office because he engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or has given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. She filed her challenge Dec. 6.
- Paul Gordon, of Portland, who argued that because Trump has expressly stated that he won the 2020 election, he is barred from office under the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which sets a two-term limit on presidents. He filed his challenge Dec. 8.
Bellows dismissed the Gordon petition, citing the fact that since Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Trump only served one term.
Q: Why were the challenges filed so late, when Trump had petitioned to be on the ballot in October?
A: The final ballot certification was Dec. 5. The challengers had to wait until that was done before they could file.
Q: Can Trump qualify as a write-in candidate?
A: No. Write-in candidates must have filed with the Maine Secretary of State by Dec. 26 to qualify for ballot placement. They must also meet the qualifications of the office that they’re running for, and Bellows’ decision is that Trump does not do that. Voters can still write him in, but if he were to win the Republican primary in Maine, he would be disqualified as the winner if Bellows’ decision stands.
Q: What is the status of Trump challenges in other states?
A.: As already noted, New Hampshire’s courts rejected a similar challenge, so Trump’s status on the Jan. 23 presidential primary ballot in the Granite State is intact.
Here’s how similar challenges are faring in other states:
California: On Thursday, Secretary of State Shirley Weber certified the primary ballot with Trump’s name on it, effectively dismissing a John Anthony Castro challenge, despite a Dec. 20 letter from Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, who urged her to “explore every legal option.” Weber said that the ballot challenge is one that should be decided by the courts. The primary is March 5.
Colorado: The state Supreme Court Dec. 19 disqualified Trump on the same constitutional grounds Bellows did, preventing his inclusion on the primary ballot. Trump will remain on the ballot until the appeal by the state’s Republican party is heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which was filed Wednesday. If the court doesn’t hear the case, the Colorado decision will stand. The primary is March 5.
Michigan: The state Supreme Court Wednesday ruled that Trump will stay on the primary ballot, refusing to hear an appeal request from Free Speech for People, which had filed a suit asking that Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to keep Trump off the ballot. A Michigan Court of Claims judge ruled in November that it wasn’t a matter for state courts. The state Supreme Court agreed. The fact the court didn’t address the constitutional issue means Free Speech for the People can take it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The primary is Feb. 27.
Minnesota: Free Speech for People filed the same suit they had in Michigan, with the same fate. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that, under state law, a political party can put whoever it wants on a primary ballot. The Minnesota high court also did not address the constitutional issue. The primary is March 5.
New Jersey: Mahwah resident John Bellocchio, a former history teacher, filed a suit in the Chancery Division of the New Jersey Superior Court challenging Trump’s eligibility to be on the ballot. The case is pending. The primary is May 4.
New York: Resident Jerome Dewald filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York to keep him off the ballot. The case is pending. The primary is April 2.
Oregon: Free Speech for People filed a suit in Oregon Supreme Court Dec. 6 asking that the secretary of state take Trump off the state’s primary ballot. The case is pending. The primary is May 21.
Virginia: A class action suit led by civil rights activists Roy L. Perry-Bey and Carlos A. Howard was filed in U.S. District Court, Eastern Virginia Division, to remove Trump from the ballot. The state GOP filed a motion to dismiss on Nov. 23. The case is pending. The primary is March 5.
Wyoming. Resident Tim Newcomb filed a suit in the District Court of the Second Judicial District, in Albany County, against the secretary of state to have him remove Trump from the ballot. Secretary of State Chuck Gray filed a motion to dismiss. The case is pending. The Democrats caucus on April 13, but the state’s Republicans have yet to set a caucus date.
Castro cases: Besides Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire, cases in Rhode Island and Florida have been dismissed by a judge. Both were Castro cases.
Castro cases are pending in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin. Castro withdrew suits in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Utah.
Information for this article about cases in other states came from lawfaremedia.org.