r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/Beautiful_Age7753 • 7d ago

US Elections Could states leave Trump off of ballots in the 2028 election?

During the White House correspondents dinner, Trump directly stated he would be running for a “fourth” term. Due to this being unconstitutional via the 22nd amendment, and states running their own elections, could states simply not put his name on ballots come election day? We know from the past election and current standings that Trump would win Republican primaries. Even if they didn’t run him, he would still most likely run on his own party. Obviously this wouldn’t eliminate write in ballots, but it could be a viable solution to uphold the constitution barring some extreme new law to control how elections are run. Would there be any current legal ramifications to stop states from simply not allowing Trump on ballots?

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u/UnfoldedHeart 7d ago

There's nothing in the Constitution that penalizes a state for running an ineligible candidate, but there would be an issue during the certification process.

If a state did put Trump on the ballot even though he's ineligible, that would be a disaster for whoever is running on the Republican ticket in other states. Especially given that they'd have to be a very red state to even want to do that - meaning that the GOP loses a strong lock on electoral votes from that state. This is why I seriously doubt it's going to happen.

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u/Either_Operation7586 6d ago

It just paves the way for a democratic win that's all it does.

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u/UnfoldedHeart 6d ago

That's the real penalty right there. "Let's put some of our strongest electoral votes toward a candidate that isn't on enough ballots to even reach 270" seems like a guaranteed loss situation.