AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine House of Representatives on Wednesday defeated the second bid from a Republican lawmaker to impeach Secretary of State Shenna Bellows over her reversed decision to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the Republican primary.
Rep. John Andrews, R-Paris, introduced the resolution in response to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday restoring Trump to the ballot after Maine, Colorado and Illinois disqualified him by finding he violated the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause. The House voted 78-62 to defeat his new resolution, after Andrews failed in his initial effort to impeach Bellows in January.
The lone Republican who joined all Democrats in voting against the resolution Wednesday was Rep. Kimberly Pomerleau of Standish.
Bellows, a Democrat, and the Colorado Supreme Court issued rulings in December that agreed with registered voters who brought forward challenges arguing Trump was ineligible for the primary under the 14th Amendment due to inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. An Illinois judge made a similar decision last week.
But the Supreme Court unanimously ruled a day before Super Tuesday primaries in Maine, Colorado and more than a dozen other states that, without initial action from Congress, states cannot invoke the post-Civil War constitutional provision to keep presidential candidates from appearing on ballots.