AUGUSTA, Maine — A little-known Republican presidential candidate filed a lawsuit Wednesday that seeks to disqualify former President Donald Trump from Maine’s 2024 ballot.
The suit from John Anthony Castro is part of a flurry of challenges he has filed to Trump’s candidacy in many states. A former federal prosecutor reportedly called the attempts a “Hail Mary,” although election officials in Maine and elsewhere are examining the legal arguments.
Castro of Mansfield, Texas, filed the complaint in U.S. District Court in Portland and named Trump and Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows as defendants. It argues Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution should disqualify Trump from the ballot.
That is the yet-to-be-tested legal argument opponents of Trump — the first ex-president indicted in U.S. history — are making in saying he should not appear on the 2024 ballot, as the amendment disqualifies people who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding office.
Trump has been indicted in four pending cases, including one alleging he sought to overturn his 2020 election defeat to President Joe Biden and stoked the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol in which his supporters breached the building, assaulted police and disrupted Congress’ certification of the election results.
While two conservative legal scholars have argued Trump is constitutionally barred from running again for president due to his role in what they described as the Jan. 6 “insurrection,” other experts have cast doubt on whether Trump’s legal fate could prevent him from running and serving again.
On Labor Day, Castro posted photos of court filings in various states to social media and said he was about to “unleash legal hell” on Trump. Castro, a 39-year-old tax consultant, previously made unsuccessful bids to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives
Election officials in other states have also received challenges to Trump’s eligibility from not only individuals but also groups representing voters of all political stripes.
Castro told the Bangor Daily News in an email a similar lawsuit from a watchdog group in Colorado will likely fail due to the group lacking the standing to challenge a federal question but that he would have that standing as a candidate.
Despite his legal cases, Trump remains far and away the favorite to win the 2024 GOP primary and once again face Biden, who is expected to beat his main challenger, Robert Kennedy Jr., in the Democratic primary.
A spokesperson for Bellows said she did not have any comment Thursday on Castro’s lawsuit. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat and former attorney general, seemed to cast doubt on the legal theory behind keeping Trump off the ballot when asked about it on Maine Public’s “Maine Calling” show on Thursday, calling it “extraordinary” while saying she had no position on the law.
The secretary of state and Attorney General Aaron Frey, who are also Democrats, announced last week they are reviewing “14th Amendment election law questions” and analyzing ballot access questions, “as we do prior to every major election.”
“Any decisions about ballot access will be made dispassionately at the proper time in accordance with the laws and the Constitution, which will be our sole consideration,” the two officials said without mentioning Trump.
Candidates have until Dec. 1 to formally submit their petitions to appear in Maine’s primaries next year, with the first round of ballots sent Jan. 20, 2024, to military and overseas voters.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.
