AUGUSTA, Maine — A Republican lawmaker formally introduced a resolution on Wednesday seeking to impeach Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows from office over her decision to rule former President Donald Trump ineligible for Maine’s primary ballot.
Bellows, a Democrat, is certain to keep her job because the Legislature is controlled by her party. The move to impeach the secretary of state will still thrust her further into the national spotlight and force a debate as soon as Tuesday on the first impeachment resolution considered in the State House since a failed one against former Gov. Paul LePage in 2016.
Rep. John Andrews, R-Paris, who filed the resolution, signaled his intent to impeach Bellows following her Dec. 28 decision to disqualify Trump from the March 5 primary ballot after finding he violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by engaging in insurrection through his incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol.
The impeachment resolution from Andrews asks a House special investigative committee to review allegations of “misconduct” by Bellows, including “the failure to recuse herself for bias” for overseeing the hearing after serving as an elector for President Joe Biden during the 2020 election. The resolution directs the special committee to report its findings to the House by Jan. 31.
Andrews argued Trump, who remains the clear Republican frontrunner to face Biden again in November despite facing four pending criminal cases, met the qualifications to appear on Maine’s ballot. Bellows shot back in an impromptu news conference on Wednesday, calling the resolution as a political attack.
“It would be unprecedented for an elected official to be removed for doing their duty under the law and under the Constitution of the United States,” she said.
The Maine Constitution gives the House the power to impeach by a simple majority, while the Senate then has the power to remove an official from office if a two-thirds majority agrees. Democrats control both chambers, meaning the impeachment proceedings are likely to end in the House.
Trump’s attorneys have appealed Bellows’ decision to the Kennebec County Superior Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court may have the final say on the efforts to disqualify Trump that have so far only succeeded in Colorado and Maine.
Bellows noted Maine law required her as secretary of state to rule on three challenges to Trump’s eligibility and that evidence the challengers presented in December made it clear Trump “used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.”
Bellows became the country’s first secretary of state to rule Trump ineligible for the 2024 ballot, after the Colorado Supreme Court also ruled a week before her decision last month that Trump is disqualified due to violating the 14th Amendment.
Bellows also used the news conference to condemn threats she said she, her family and staff have received since her Dec. 28 ruling, with police investigating a “swatting” call made to her Manchester home on Dec. 29 while Bellows and her family were gone.
Security around the secretary of state’s office on the State House complex was heavy on Wednesday. Police officers sat outside in vehicles with two plainclothes officers in the lobby to check in guests. There are normally no police officers stationed around the office.