Current:Home > Contact-usNew Mexico prepares for June presidential primary amid challenge to Trump candidacy-InfoLens
New Mexico prepares for June presidential primary amid challenge to Trump candidacy
View Date:2025-01-09 18:45:19
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s major political parties are scheduled to certify presidential contenders to appear on the state’s June 4 primary ballot, amid uncertainty about whether Donald Trump can be barred from contention by any state under anti-insurrection provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
Party-certified presidential candidates will be vetted in February by the New Mexico secretary of state’s office to ensure they meet administrative requirements to run for the office. New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, said she won’t exclude candidates that meet administrative requirements — unless a court with jurisdiction intervenes.
The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday barred Trump from the state’s ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone from holding office who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it. It’s the first time in history the provision has been used to prohibit someone from running for the presidency, and the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to have the final say over whether the ruling will stand.
Little-known presidential candidate John Anthony Castro has challenged Trump’s eligibility to appear on the ballot in New Mexico and Arizona in federal court based on anti-insurrection provisions of the 14th Amendment. The Arizona lawsuit was dismissed earlier this month and a ruling is pending in New Mexico. Trump lost the New Mexico vote in 2016 and again in 2020 by a wider margin.
A county commissioner in southern New Mexico last year was removed and banished from public office by a state district court judge for engaging in insurrection at the Jan. 6, 2021, riots that disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.
Former Otero County commissioner Couy Griffin has appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court after the New Mexico Supreme Court declined to hear the case based on missed filing deadlines. It’s unclear whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take up Griffin’s case once it’s fully briefed next year.
The constitutional provision used to bar Griffin — and now Trump in Colorado — has only been used a handful of times. It originally was created to prevent former Confederates from returning to government positions.
“These are constitutional issues and it is not the secretary of state’s role to make this kind of a legal finding in New Mexico,” said Alex Curtas, a spokesperson to Secretary of State Toulouse Oliver. “As long as a candidate meets all the administrative requirements to be placed on the ballot in 2024, they would not be excluded from the ballot unless a court with jurisdiction made a legal finding and ordered that person to be excluded.”
veryGood! (7)
Related
- Judge extends the time to indict the driver accused of killing Johnny Gaudreau and his brother
- Highway traffic pollution puts communities of color at greater health risk
- Dartmouth football coach Buddy Teevens, an innovator and the school’s winningest coach, dies at 66
- Watch: 9-foot crocodile closes Florida beach to swimmers in 'very scary' sighting
- New 'Yellowstone' is here: Season 5 Part 2 premiere date, time, where to watch
- Video, frantic 911 call capture moments after Amazon delivery driver bitten by highly venomous rattlesnake in Florida
- A panel finds torture made a 9/11 defendant psychotic. A judge will rule whether he can stand trial
- What happens next following Azerbaijan's victory? Analysis
- Angels sign Travis d'Arnaud: Former All-Star catcher gets multiyear contract in LA
- Nevada pardons board will now consider requests for posthumous pardons
Ranking
- Fighting conspiracy theories with comedy? That’s what the Onion hopes after its purchase of Infowars
- The Games Begin in Dramatic Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Trailer
- Japan’s troubled Toshiba to delist after takeover by Japanese consortium succeeds
- Malaria is on the ropes in Bangladesh. But the parasite is punching back
- In an AP interview, the next Los Angeles DA says he’ll go after low-level nonviolent crimes
- Suspect pleads not guilty by reason of insanity in murder of LA sheriff's deputy
- McDonald's faces lawsuit over scalding coffee that left woman with severe burns
- Railroads work to make sure firefighters can quickly look up what is on a train after a derailment
Recommendation
-
Jason Kelce collaborates with Stevie Nicks for Christmas duet: Hear the song
-
Police arrest second teen in Vegas hit-and-run of police chief after viral video captures moment
-
T-Squared: Tiger Woods, Justin Timberlake open a New York City sports bar together
-
Still there: Alzheimer's has ravaged his mother's memory, but music brings her back
-
John Krasinski named People magazine’s 2024 Sexiest Man Alive
-
Kraft recall: American cheese singles recalled for potential gagging, choking hazard
-
At 91, Georgia’s longest serving sheriff says he won’t seek another term in 2024
-
Kane Brown is headlining Summerfest 2024's opening night in Milwaukee