Multiple House Democrats have indicated that they might not certify the 2024 presidential election results if former President Donald Trump wins. Political analysts have warned that Democrat lawmakers could try to use the 14th Amendment to object to the certification of a Trump electoral win by labeling him ineligible as an insurrectionist if the Supreme Court does not issue a definitive ruling prior to the election.
According to The Atlantic, Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff (Calif.), Eric Swalwell (Calif.), Jamie Raskin (Md.), James Clyburn (S.C.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies (N.Y.) have refused to commit to confirming the 2024 election results if Trump wins in a potential rematch election against President Joe Biden.
Additionally, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) told The Atlantic that she “might be” one of the Democratic lawmakers who would push for the former president to be disqualified from holding office again; however, while Lofgren said she thinks Trump is “clearly ineligible, she described the process of challenging elections results as “very murky” and warned, “there’s no procedure, per se, for challenging on this basis.”
While Schiff did not commit to certifying the election results if Trump is president, he told The Atlantic that he would not object if the Supreme Court declares Trump eligible for the 2024 election. He added that he did not “want to get into the chaos hypothetical” of what might happen if the Supreme Court does not issue a decision ahead of the election.
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Swalwell assured The Atlantic that he is “going to follow the law” based on the Supreme Court’s ruling, adding, “I would not object out of protest of how the Supreme Court comes down. It would be doing what I didn’t like about the January 6 Republicans.”
Dan McLaughlin, a senior writer with National Review, has warned that Democrats could have enough votes to object to the certification of the 2024 election if they gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives. He explained that an objection would only require a simple majority of representatives.
On the other hand, McLaughlin pointed out that a majority of U.S. senators would also be required to object to the 2024 election results if Democrats wanted to disqualify Trump, which he claimed would be a difficult task for Democrats to achieve as the electoral map in the Senate favors Republicans in the 2024 election.
According to The Daily Wire, one potential solution to the question of whether Democrats may try to object to the 2024 election results rests with the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court rules in “Trump v. Anderson” that the former president is eligible and cannot be disqualified on the basis of the 14th Amendment, Democrat lawmakers could have a difficult time preventing the certification of a Trump election win.
