AUGUSTA, Maine — The challengers to President Donald Trump’s ballot eligibility in Maine have been collecting donations to cover more than $4,000 in legal fees, a small part of the massive court fight awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court opinion.
The amount of legal debt was revealed in a Sunday fundraising request from Progressive Portland, a volunteer-run group that advocates for liberal policies in Maine’s largest city. Former Mayor Ethan Strimling, one of the three former Maine officeholders that filed the most prominent challenge against Trump’s eligibility here, is aligned with that organization.
Trump’s bill for several attorneys working the Maine case is unclear, but his Save America political action committee reportedly spent as much as $40 million on firms defending him and associates in various criminal and civil cases during the first half of 2023.
Strimling said that Progressive Portland offered to help the challengers aiming to disqualify Trump from the March 5 primary, though Progressive Portland’s email said a challenger approached the group for help.
The goal is to “raise what we can from small donations to cover out-of-pocket costs,” such as filing fees, mileage and printing costs, Strimling said, adding that the main attorneys working on their case, Benjamin Gaines and Jamie Kilbreth, have otherwise put in pro bono work.
“Maybe a couple of hundred folks have donated to date from across the state,” Strimling said via a text message Tuesday. “Tough to compete with the Trump machine money!”
Strimling teamed up with Republican state Sens. Kim Rosen of Bucksport and Tom Saviello of Wilton to ask Secretary of State Shenna Bellows in December to rule Trump ineligible for the March 5 primary by arguing Trump violated the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause when he incited the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Bellows, a Democrat, agreed with that argument in a Dec. 28 ruling, which Trump and his attorneys appealed to the Superior Court in Augusta. Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy paused Bellows’ decision last week until the Supreme Court likely rules in February on Trump’s appeal of a similar Colorado Supreme Court ruling that deemed the GOP frontrunner ineligible.
Bellows has asked Maine’s highest court to rule on Trump before the Supreme Court does, with Supreme Judicial Court hearing dates not yet scheduled. Amid all the legal developments, the challengers have racked up more than $4,000 in legal debt, according to Sunday’s email from Progressive Portland.
“Every dollar counts: Please make a donation today and help keep the insurrectionist Donald Trump off the ballot, as the U.S. Constitution requires,” the group’s email said while linking to a donation page.
Steven Biel, a member of Progressive Portland’s board of directors, deferred to the Sunday email for comment. Two other challengers to Trump’s eligibility in Maine, Portland attorney Paul Gordon and Winterport resident Mary Anne Royal, have represented themselves so far.
Ahead of any final conclusion to the Trump ballot eligibility question, the former president has maintained a commanding lead over the GOP presidential field that has been whittled down to only one serious Trump challenger — former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Haley was facing pressure to win Tuesday’s primary in New Hampshire or else face an increasingly narrow path to defeating Trump for the chance to take on President Joe Biden in November.