US Election 2024: Illinois wants to keep Donald Trump out of primary

As of: 3:55 am| Reading Time: 3 minutes

EAnother US state wants to exclude Republican Donald Trump from the presidential race. A court in the state of Illinois ruled on Wednesday (local time) that the former president was not allowed to participate in the vote due to his role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US capital by his supporters. This was unanimously reported by several American media including CNN and the New York Times.

Trump's conduct in connection with the capitol attack disqualified him from the presidency. Similar decisions were previously made in the states of Colorado and Maine. The country's Supreme Court is now dealing with the question. A decision is pending there.

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Trump wants to run again as a Republican in the US presidential election in early November. Anyone who wants to run for president must first win the internal party primaries. Plaintiffs in various states have been trying for some time to block Trump from participating in the primary and remove the 77-year-old's name from the ballot.

The Republican defended himself legally against earlier decisions in Colorado and Maine — and his group immediately announced it would challenge the decision in Illinois as well. “This is an unconstitutional ruling and we will soon appeal,” his campaign team said in a statement on Wednesday evening (local time). For now, Trump's name will remain on the ballot in the state. The Republican primary in Illinois is March 19.

The first decision to remove Trump from the ballot was made in Colorado. Republicans petitioned the nation's Supreme Court to overturn the Colorado ruling — which now stands for similar decisions in Maine and Illinois. In early February the Supreme Court had a hearing on an important legal and political question. Judges there expressed doubts about the possibility of removing the former president from the highest office of the state. It is not known when the court will decide on this.

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The backdrop of the controversy is the unprecedented attack on the US Capitol three years ago: Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. Congress met there to formally confirm Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. Trump had earlier incited his supporters during his speech with baseless claims that he lost his election victory through massive fraud.

Trump opponents have filed lawsuits across the country, arguing that the Republican has lost his right to run for president again because of his role in the attack. They refer to the so-called ban on sedition in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Accordingly, no one who has previously participated as an official in a revolt against the government can hold a high office in the state.