Comer ‘not surprised’ by Maine ballot ruling on Trump, expects more states to follow

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Thursday he was not surprised Maine’s secretary of state ruled that former President Trump cannot appear on the primary ballot in 2024.

In an interview on Fox News with Jason Chaffetz, Comer characterized the ruling as a political one and said he expects other blue states to “pull stunts like this” too.

“Well, I’m not surprised. I fear we’re going to see this happen in more states,” Comer said when asked for his reaction to the Maine decision.

Comer added that, being in his home state for the Christmas holiday, he’s talked to regular voters, and he claimed “They think it’s absurd what the Democrats are trying to do in blue states in banning President Trump from the ballot.”

“I mean, this is clearly election interference,” Comer added, repeating a frequent GOP talking point.

Comer said he thought the Maine secretary of state’s decision to rule Trump ineligible to appear on the state’s primary ballot was an effort to distract from the Democrats’ unpopular most-likely candidate in 2024.

“So I think that the Democrats are trying to do everything they can, in a last-ditch effort to disrupt the Republican momentum right now heading into the presidential election. I think this is another example of that,” Comer said. “And I hate to say it, Jason, but I fear we’re gonna see more blue states pull stunts like this.”

Comer’s comments come after Maine’s Democratic secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, concluded Trump was ineligible for office under the “insurrection clause” of the 14^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Bellows said she concluded Trump “over the course of several months and culminating on January 6, 2021, used a false narrative of election fraud to inflame his supporters and direct them to the Capitol to prevent certification of the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.”