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Former President Donald J. Trump’s rivals within the Republican race for president once more lined up in his protection on Thursday after Maine barred him from its main election poll, the second state to take action.
When the Colorado Supreme Court barred Mr. Trump from the first poll there final week, all of Mr. Trump’s opponents additionally criticized the choice, rather than using it as an avenue of attack.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur, made a lot the identical arguments on Thursday evening.
“It opens up Pandora’s field,” Mr. DeSantis mentioned on Fox News after the Maine resolution was introduced. “Can you have got a Republican secretary of state disqualify Biden from the poll?”
Mr. DeSantis had beforehand instructed that the ruling in Colorado had been a part of a plot to solidify Republican support behind Mr. Trump within the main. He had additionally mentioned that Mr. Trump’s prison indictments had “sucked all the oxygen” out of the race.
Mr. Ramaswamy, the candidate who ostensibly is working towards Mr. Trump however has most enthusiastically defended the previous president, once more mentioned he would withdraw from the first in any state the place Mr. Trump was not on the poll. He additionally referred to as on the G.O.P. discipline — Mr. DeSantis, former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina and former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey — to make the same pledge.
“This is what an precise menace to democracy appears like,” Mr. Ramaswamy mentioned in an announcement. “The system is hellbent on taking this man out, the Constitution be damned.”
A press release from the Haley marketing campaign mentioned that “Nikki will beat Trump truthful and sq.. It ought to be as much as voters to determine who will get elected.”
A spokesman for Mr. Christie’s marketing campaign pointed to his earlier criticism of the Colorado ruling. Mr. Christie mentioned on the time {that a} courtroom mustn’t exclude a candidate from the poll and not using a trial that included “proof that’s accepted by a jury.” He has additionally mentioned that Mr. Trump ought to be defeated on the poll field.
Other Republicans moved rapidly to precise their outrage on Thursday. Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the No. 4 Republican within the House, referred to as Mr. Trump’s elimination from the poll in Maine “election interference, voter suppression and a blatant assault on democracy.”
Reaction from Maine’s congressional delegation was cut up. Senator Susan Collins, the lone Republican, mentioned the choice, which she mentioned would “deny hundreds of Mainers the chance to vote for the candidate of their selection,” ought to be overturned. Senator Angus King, an unbiased who caucuses with Democrats, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Representative Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat who’s more likely to face an in depth re-election bid, mentioned he disagreed with the choice, arguing that Mr. Trump had not been discovered responsible of the crime of riot and due to this fact ought to stay on the poll. Mr. Golden’s seat has been rated a tossup in an evaluation by The Cook Political Report.
“I voted to question Donald Trump for his function within the Jan. 6 riot. I don’t imagine he ought to be re-elected as president of the United States,” Mr. Golden mentioned in an announcement. “However, we’re a nation of legal guidelines, due to this fact, till he’s truly discovered responsible of the crime of riot, he ought to be allowed on the poll.”
Representative Chellie Pingree, who’s in a secure Democratic seat in Maine’s different congressional district, mentioned she supported the state’s resolution.
“The textual content of the 14th Amendment is obvious. No one that engaged in an riot towards the federal government can ever once more serve in elected workplace,” Ms. Pingree mentioned in an announcement, including that “our Constitution is the very bedrock of America and our legal guidelines and it seems Trump’s actions are prohibited by the Constitution.”
