Groups call on Nevada secretary of state to bar Trump from ballot

Two civil rights groups are urging Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar to bar former president and 2024 candidate Donald Trump from the ballot.

In a letter sent to Aguilar last month and recently released by the two groups, Free Speech for People and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund argue that Trump’s role in “inciting and facilitating the violent January 6th attack on the Capitol” makes him “constitutionally ineligible to run for office again.”

The groups cite the “Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause” in the 14th Amendment, which they say was put in place after the Civil War and disqualifies “any individual who has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and then engages in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or gives aid or comfort to its enemies.”

“The evidence is overwhelming that Donald Trump incited and mobilized the insurrection on January 6, 2021 at our nation’s Capitol,” said Alexandra Flores-Quilty, campaign director for Free Speech For People, in a statement. “The US Constitution is clear that anyone who takes an oath of office and then engages in insurrection is forever barred from holding public office again.”

The groups argue that Aguilar, whose office declined to comment for this story, has the power to enforce the 14th Amendment, and they say that nowhere in the text does it suggest that states need authorization from Congress.

The letter to Aguilar is part of a larger campaign from the groups to urge secretaries across the country to bar the former president from their state ballots. In July 2022, Free Speech For People issued a declaration for secretaries of state, asking them to sign a declaration that says Trump is barred from running for future office. The groups are now calling on people to sign their petition calling on secretaries of state to follow the 14th Amendment.

“It’s amazing the lengths they’re going to to make sure he’s not able to run,” Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday. “Having worked with Secretary of State Aguilar, so far I can tell you he’s been nothing but honorable. He’s been fair. … I think he’ll take a good, balanced look at it.”

Trump is under federal investigation and has been indicted on several charges, although none related to his role in the Jan. 6 events.

A U.S. House committee was formed to investigate Trump’s involvement in the events, and it formally accused Trump of four crimes — including assisting in an insurrection — however any charging decisions are up to the Department of Justice.

McDonald said the effort to bar Trump from the ballot should be a “wake-up call” for all Republicans.

“The Democrats and liberal side of the Democratic Party will go to all extreme measures to make sure President Trump is not on the ballot,” he said. “That should be on the minds of Republicans in Nevada. They need to make their voices heard and stand up and fight for the man who’s been fighting for them.”

Trump will speak at a volunteer recruitment event Saturday at Fervent Calvary Chapel in Las Vegas to lay the foundation for the Republican grassroots movement ahead of the 2024 election.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on Twitter.