Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has dismissed calls to boycott primary elections in Colorado and Maine in protest at the exclusion of former President Trump. Fellow Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said he will remove his name from the ballots in response to rulings by the Colorado Supreme Court and Maine’s Secretary of State that Donald Trump is disqualified from the Oval Office because the 14th Amendment to the Constitution disallows those who have engaged in insurrection.
Ramaswamy called on Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to refuse to participate unless the decisions to exclude Trump are overturned. In an interview with Laura Ingraham, DeSantis called the request “absurd.” The Floridian argued that he has “a responsibility to accumulate delegates. I’m not gonna unilaterally cede any, I’m gonna win as many as I can.”
Former President Donald Trump has challenged both states and the GOP in Colorado appealed to the US Supreme Court to overturn the ruling. Trump has likewise asked Maine’s state Supreme Court to overrule Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’s decision on the grounds that she is biased and does not have the authority to ban him.
Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy has slammed a decision to exclude him from a CNN town hall event in Iowa in January. Mr. Ramaswamy immediately pledged to hold his own event at the same time and said, “Establishment insiders will be on the CNN stage and outsiders will be speaking directly to the people.”
CNN qualification rules determined that only those polling above 10% in Iowa could participate, meaning that only Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Donald Trump can take part.
Controversial businessman Ramaswamy has seen his popularity nosedive since the GOP primary campaigns began, and he cut advertisement spending in Iowa in December amid speculation that he is quietly preparing to pull out of the race. Ramaswamy has faced intense criticism for his behavior at Republican debates, with some accusing him of arrogance and bullying.
