Former President Donald Trump is among six Republican candidates who have qualified for the presidential primary in Maine and will appear on ballots in March barring any challenges made in the next week.
The Republican front-runner’s access to the ballot has been challenged in several states because of his role in the Jan. 6 riots.
Challengers in other states argue Trump should be ineligible because the 14th Amendment prohibits people from holding office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
No challenges are pending in Maine, although they can be filed until Dec.8.
The presidential primary is March 5. In order to qualify for the Maine ballot, candidates had to submit between 2,000 and 2,500 signatures from registered voters in their party.
There will be both a Democratic and Republican presidential primary in Maine, said Emily Cook, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of the Secretary of State. Cook said no other parties filed to have presidential primaries before the deadline Friday.
President Biden and Dean Phillips, a congressman from Minnesota, qualified for Maine’s Democratic primary.
Marianne Williamson, a Democratic activist and author who made a campaign stop in Portland last month, did not submit petitions, Cook said.
Candidates who qualified for the Republican primary are Trump; Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota; Ryan Binkley, a Texas businessman and pastor; Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley; and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur from Ohio.
John Anthony Castro, a Texas Republican who is running a write-in campaign for president, filed a lawsuit in federal court in September seeking to block Trump from appearing on the Maine ballot, but moved to voluntarily dismiss the case in October.
Castro and others have filed challenges to Trump appearing on the ballot in 31 states, and most of those cases are pending, according to Lawfare, a national security blog that has been tracking such efforts. The tracker does not list any successful efforts to date.
Presidential candidates running as independents, including Robert Kennedy Jr., can take out nomination petitions in January. They need to collect signatures from at least 4,000 Maine voters by Aug. 1.
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