Are Washington state Republicans fully behind former President Trump?
Republicans in Congress have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to keep Donald Trump on Colorado's primary ballot, but only one of two GOP representatives from Washington state have signed on to the effort.
Last month, Colorado's Supreme Court threw Donald Trump off the state’s primary ballot, calling him an "insurrectionist" involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. That case is now slated to be in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 8.
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Challenges to placing Trump on ballots across the USA are largely based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars anyone from running for office if they have engaged in insurrection. Trump's challengers state that he did exactly that on Jan. 6.
This week, a supermajority of Republicans in Congress signed an amicus brief to support Trump's place on Colorado's ballot. Included among the signers is Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state's 5th Congressional District.
Trump's supporters argue that the former president can't be an insurrectionist because he "quickly" called for peace. The amicus brief also states that the court in Colorado "adopted a malleable and expansive view of 'engage in insurrection,' which will easily lead to widespread abuse of Section 3 against political opponents."
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Absent from the signatures is Washington's only other Republican representative in Congress — Rep. Dan Newhouse from Washington's 4th Congressional District.
In an interview with C-SPAN this week, Newhouse also would not commit to backing Trump for president, even if he's the GOP nominee. Newhouse did say that, “it's critically important that Republicans return to the White House,” that it was too early to determine support for Trump, and that he is "waiting to hear from the American people and who our options are going to be."
Newhouse was among 10 Republicans in the U.S. House who voted to impeach Trump in 2021. Of those 10, eight either did not run for re-election or faced GOP competition and were voted out of office. Newhouse kept his job in Congress.
Another Washington Republican, Rep. Jaimie Herrera Beutler, also voted to impeach Trump. She was ousted after being challenged by a far-right candidate and failing to receive enough primary votes in Washington's 3rd Congressional District.
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Similar challenges to placing Trump on the ballot have emerged in other states, but with mixed results. For example, Michigan and California have denied attempts to knock Trump off the ballot. A court in Maine concluded Trump could be nixed from the ballot.
A Thurston County judge recently shot down an attempt to keep Trump off the ballot in Washington state.