President Trump’s primary challengers in the 2020 race have been left off the Wisconsin ballot after the state’s Republican Party submitted only his name.
A committee made up of Republicans and Democrats met with state election officials to determine who will appear on the April 7 primary ballot, The Associated Press reported.
Republican committee members submitted only the president’s name, and he was supported unanimously, leaving out former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld and former Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill.), his GOP challengers.
Weld and Walsh could still appear on the primary ballot if they obtain 8,000 signatures by Jan. 28, according to the news wire.
Andrew Hitt, the chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party, said they decided not to submit the other GOP candidates’ names because of their lack of activity in the state, their lack of success in making it on other state ballots and their lack of communication, as they didn’t contact the state’s party until Monday. The Trump campaign, on the other hand, has been working with the party, Hitt said, according to the AP.
Weld took to Twitter to express his displeasure with the Wisconsin GOP’s decision, calling it “shameful” and “not how a democracy works.”
Walsh campaign spokesperson Charles Siler told The Hill that the campaign is “incredibly angry” over the decision, saying it disenfranchises Republican voters.
“I would just say this kind of disenfranchisement is unprecedented as so many things are in the Trump presidency,” he said.
The Democrats on the committee put 14 candidates, who were all unanimously approved, on the ballot. These candidates included former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Weld and Walsh have struggled to make the initial ballots in several states, including Minnesota and Georgia, and other states such as Hawaii and South Carolina canceled their GOP primaries.