CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office has asked to intervene in a federal lawsuit that seeks to keep former President Donald J. Trump off the ballot for the 2024 West Virginia Primary and General elections.
This case is one of many, as activists across the country are suing to prevent Trump from being on 2024 ballots.
Earlier this month, fellow GOP presidential candidate John Anthony Castro filed his complaint against Trump and West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, whose office oversees elections in the state. Last week, the West Virginia Republican Party filed a motion to intervene in the case to support Trump being on the ballot.
In his complaint, Castro cites a section of the 14th Amendment in saying Trump is ineligible because he “engaged in or provided ‘aid or comfort’ to an insurrection.”
“Excluding an eligible candidate from the ballot deprives citizens of the choice for themselves who they want to represent them in every level of government and impedes a fair and free election process,” Morrisey said of his office’s October 2 filing. “Any eligible candidate has the right to be on the ballot unless legally disqualified, and we will defend the laws of West Virginia and the right of voters and candidates to the fullest.”
Morrisey, a Republican, hopes to intervene on behalf of the state to ensure West Virginians have the “right to cast a vote for the candidate of their choosing.”
Warner, also a Republican, previously issued a statement saying he will "vigorously defend the Constitution to ensure every eligible candidate" ... "has the right to seek their party’s nomination at West Virginia's Primary Election until instructed otherwise by the court."
“Every eligible candidate, including Donald Trump, has the constitutional right to have their name on West Virginia's Primary Election ballot unless legally disqualified," Warner said. "Seeking to remove voters’ opportunity to nominate a candidate to be the next President of the United States is not to be taken lightly.
"As West Virginia's chief election official, every eligible candidate and registered voter can trust that I will follow and enforce the Constitution."
Castro and others have filed dozens of similar lawsuits across the country – and filed an injunction with the U.S. Supreme Court – that argue Trump is barred from running for office because of his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. These lawsuits cite a rarely used clause of the 14th Amendment barring anyone who swore an oath to the U.S. Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” from seeking office.
Castro also is a Republican candidate for president. He seeks an injunction preventing Warner from accepting and/or processing Trump’s ballot access documentation.
Trump is the leading GOP candidate despite facing 91 criminal charges in four indictments, two of which involve his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Trump has not been charged with insurrection in any of the cases.
In the state GOP’s filing, it asks the court to allow it to intervene and the case and allow it to argue why Trump should be allowed on the ballot.
“Over the past few months, there has been a coordinated national effort to prevent President Trump from appearing on the ballot in 2024,” WVGOP Chairwoman Elgine McArdle said in a press release. “This effort has now arrived in West Virginia. The West Virginia Republican Party represents an association of nearly half a million registered Republican voters in this state, and as the chair of the Republican Party, I cannot and will not stand idly by as our voters are deprived of their choices in the presidential election.”
Shortly after the state GOP filed its request, Castro filed an objection and opposition, saying the party lacks standing because Trump is not the GOP nominee for West Virginia. He also says allowing the GOP to intervene could violate federal campaign finance laws.
Trump won nearly 70 percent of the vote in West Virginia in 2020 and remains popular in the state. McArdle called Castro’s challenge the “latest assault on President Trump, his campaign, and his supporters.”
“Republican voters crave a change from the status quo of high taxes, runaway inflation, rampant crime, woke ideology, and open borders,” McArdle said. “They have looked to President Trump time and time again because he has a proven record of fighting for a better economy, energy independence, job creation, strong borders and conservative, commonsense policies that achieve real results for the American people.
“Voters in West Virginia and across the country deserve the opportunity to vote for their choice for president, whether the establishment and leftist jurists like it or not. What we’re seeing take place is shameful and wrong — but we will proudly enter into this litigation to deliver a victory for President Trump, our voters and the rule of law.”
McArdle, also an attorney, is serving as local counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice in the request to intervene.
“We must defend the Constitution against the radical left’s outrageous and unconstitutional plot against election integrity,” said Jordan Sekulow, ACLJ’s executive director.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 2:23-cv-598