The chairman of the Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) told National Public Radio (NPR) on Friday that he expects the “absurd” decision of the Colorado Supreme Court to strike former President Donald Trump from the ballot to energize Republicans to vote against President Joe Biden in November 2024.
On Tuesday, a one-vote majority of the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump engaged in an insurrection against the United States government on January 6, 2021, and thus is ineligible to run for president in 2024 and struck him from the state’s primary ballots, prompting widespread outrage from Republicans.
McKoon (pictured above) called the Colorado decision “absurd,” citing similar challenges made in other states that were “uniformly rejected” by the courts.
“We have a Colorado Supreme Court entirely composed of Democratic appointees and three of them even rejected it, so you have four left wing judges trying to deprive the people of Colorado the candidate of their choice,” McKoon reiterated. “It’s simply absurd.”
Asked whether states have the right or ability to strike candidates from their ballot, the Georgia Republican leader cited the U.S. Constitution. He explained, “States cannot alter or amend those, and thankfully most judges recognize that, so I expect the U.S. Supreme Court will swiftly reverse this decision.”
McKoon also said he does not expect the ongoing legal machinations surrounding the former president to hurt his election odds, even if he is convicted. McKoon charged that the American people “are sovereign” and “get to decide who the candidate of their choice is going to be.”
He added that Trump’s legal challenges are “energizing Republicans to say, we’ve got to take this country back because we’ve got to get back to a situation where we do not prosecute people because they’re our political adversaries.”
“We’ve just seen throughout this process so much energy in our grassroots, 70 percent of our delegates back in June were brand new, they had never participated before,” McKoon told NPR. He added that voters “are incredibly energized and excited because they want our country to go back to a place where if you lose an election you don’t have to worry about being indicted.”
McKoon also commended the proposal by Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams to assign the state’s delegates using a caucus system if the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision is not reversed in time for Colorado’s presidential primary contest on March 5.
“The people have the right to the candidate of their choice, whoever they may be,” McKoon told the outlet, adding that he expects Republican National Committee members will share his position.
A similar challenge to Trump’s candidacy is not likely to appear in Georgia, however. McKoon told the outlet he’s seen no evidence of forthcoming court cases to strike Trump’s candidacy, declaring Georgia will “hopefully” be able to “conduct our primary free from interference from left wing groups that want judges to take decisions away” from voters.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Josh McKoon” by Josh McKoon.
