Former President Donald Trump’s supporters swarmed the New Hampshire secretary of state’s office with phone calls this week to make sure that Mr. Trump would be on the ballot next year.
The calls came after conservative talk show host Charlie Kirk told listeners of his show Monday that Mr. Trump would be kept off the ballot in the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary.
David Scanlan, New Hampshire’s secretary of state, told NBC News that he’s “not seeking to remove any names from the presidential primary ballot, and I have not said that I am seeking to remove any names from the presidential primary ballot.”
But Mr. Scanlan did say that he expects Mr. Trump’s qualifications to be called into question under the 14th Amendment, which says that a person who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” can not hold public office in the United States.
Mr. Kirk urged those listening to his show to take action.
“I don’t care if you live in New Hampshire or not,” Mr. Kirk said on his show. “It should be a nationwide movement of people contacting, because this impacts everybody. We’re gonna break the phone lines and say, ’Who do you think you are for even entertaining this?’”
The talk show host was referring to Bryant Messner, a Republican whom Mr. Trump endorsed when he ran for Senate in New Hampshire in 2020, having a meeting with Mr. Scanlan on Friday to discuss challenging Mr. Trump’s qualifications.
Mr. Scanlan said that he “listened, just as I would listen to anybody that wants to come in with issues related to any candidate’s qualifications one way or the other.”
Mr. Scanlan said he would seek legal advice on the matter.
Mr. Messner told NBC that he brought the issue to Mr. Scanlan “purely as a constitutional conservative.”
Chris Ager, the chairman of the New Hampshire GOP said in a statement Monday that, “efforts to deny New Hampshire Republican Primary voters a full slate of options are antithetical to our Live Free or Die spirit,” alluding to the state’s official motto.
He added that the state’s Republican Party would fight any efforts to keep candidates off the ballot.
One Florida tax lawyer already has filed a federal lawsuit to disqualify Mr. Trump from appearing on presidential ballots over the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection” clause and other liberal legal scholars and activists have made similar threats.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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