In today’s version of the congressional GOP, there are lawmakers who are zealous fans of Donald Trump, lawmakers who are ready to move on from the former president, and those who are willing to say or do whatever with respect to Trump—so long as they get to keep their jobs.
But whatever faction they belong to, Republican members of Congress are banding together to lay a massive gift at the feet of the former president this Christmas season.
That’s because, in the wake of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to block Trump from the state’s 2024 primary ballot, Republicans are falling over themselves to run interference for Trump and message to their voters that this decision was over the line.
Since Colorado’s highest court ruled that Trump was disqualified from the ballot for violating the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on holding office for those who have “engaged in insurrection,” scores of congressional Republicans have denounced the decision and called for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn it.
But a broad cross-section of Republicans have taken their defense of Trump a step further.
Barely hours after the Colorado decision came down, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC)—hardly a close ally of the former president and a largely distrusted figure in MAGAworld—introduced legislation to block entities like the Colorado Supreme Court from issuing the ruling it did last week. Tillis’ proposal would only allow the Supreme Court, which is currently a 6-3 majority for conservatives, to decide such ballot questions.
“Regardless of whether you support or oppose former President Donald Trump, it is outrageous to see left-wing activists make a mockery of our political system by scheming with partisan state officials and pressuring judges to remove him from the ballot,” Tillis said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who chairs the Senate GOP’s campaign arm and has been a steadfast ally of Trump, said he planned “to send a letter to the US Supreme Court asking them to immediately reverse this blatant election interference for the sake of our democracy.”
In a characteristic development for this Republican-controlled House, Trump partisans began threatening to use congressional power not just to counter the Colorado ruling, but to exact vengeance on Democrats.
On Wednesday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) shared a post on X from pro-Trump activist Wade Miller, who encouraged a committee in Congress to issue a report finding that Biden is “guilty of insurrection” for “allowing an open borders invasion,” which “red states” could use as basis to ban Biden from the ballot.
“I am one member of Congress serving on Homeland and Oversight Committees that is 100% on board with this,” Greene said in a quote response to Miller.
Freshman Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), meanwhile, upped the ante on a post from right-wing pundit Erick Erickson, who warned, “you Democrats are setting precedents that will be used against you.”
“Only if the GOP has the balls to fight back,” Collins responded.
With these Trump-devotees pushing the rhetoric so far right, even Republicans who fall on the other side of the MAGA divide were left with little choice but to get on board.
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Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
On Tuesday, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX)—who supports Ron DeSantis for president—tweeted that removing Trump from the ballot is “spurious, likely unconstitutional, & a sadly predictable, but outrageous form of lawfare.” Earlier that day, Trump had slimed Roy as a “RINO” and openly recruited a primary challenger to run against him.
It’s unlikely that any result of consequence comes from Republicans taking the serious-sounding-but-largely-irrelevant step of filing bills to address the Colorado decision. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider Trump’s appeal in January, which will be the definitive and final word on the topic.
But for Republicans, conspicuously displaying outrage or concern on the ruling reflects a cold calculation: it’s a cheap and easy way for everyone, from the suspected RINO to the MAGA diehard, to score points with the party base.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told The Daily Beast that it was “astonishing to me that Republicans in Congress would object that this is somehow undemocratic.”
“The Colorado case was brought by Republicans to block a Republican insurrectionist from appearing on a Republican primary ballot,” Raskin told The Daily Beast. “The Colorado Supreme Court engaged in straightforward textualist and originalist analysis of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, a provision added to the Constitution by Republicans in the 19th century, to find that Trump is clearly disqualified for trying to overthrow the 2020 election.”
As Raskin, a constitutional law professor, put it, “what could be more democratic than a Constitution which disqualifies officials who become insurrectionists and traitors to the democracy?”
The Constitution, Raskin added, “does not trust him to take office again. He is barred from it.”
Still, some Democrats didn’t exactly welcome the Colorado ruling.
Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who is challenging President Biden for the 2024 presidential nomination, posted on X that he believes Trump is guilty of inspiring an insurrection. “Do I believe it’s wrong to ban him from the ballot in Colorado without a conviction? Absolutely,” he added.
The generous interpretation of the GOP reaction is that the ruling was so egregious it united the party: indeed, retiring Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who has been harshly critical of the former president, tweeted his disapproval of his home state high court’s ruling.
The response also fit neatly into what has been the comfort zone for much of the congressional GOP during the Trump years: not publicly worrying about the former president’s missteps and overreach but fixating on the alleged missteps and overreach of his critics.
That anti-anti-Trump faction had a field day with the Colorado ruling. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), for instance, posted on X that “the U.S. has put sanctions on other countries for doing exactly what the Colorado Supreme Court has done today.”
The political incentives for finding some common ground with Trump, for Republicans and even some Democrats, are powerful.
For Republicans, Trump’s endorsement in a primary remains influential, and the primary voters who support him are not inclined to forget even the most minor instances of perceived disloyalty.
Tillis, for instance, could easily face a challenge from the right if he runs for re-election in 2026. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who is sure to face a primary—either as vengeance from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy or a Trump base she hasn’t quite won over—was also quick to trash the ruling, tweeting, “due process and rule of law are being tossed out the window by people hell bent on ‘getting’ Pres Trump.”
But for Democrats, there are also benefits to finding a way to side with Trump in a matter like the Colorado ruling. While Trump remains an important bogeyman among Democratic voters, lawmakers establishing an issue to burnish their independent credentials—to show that they’re not reflexively against Trump and are capable of siding with the other party—is also important.
Even with preliminary polling showing that most voters actually approve of the Colorado ruling, it wouldn’t be too difficult for a Democrat to argue they’d be more comfortable if Trump were actually convicted of a crime before he’s barred from the ballot. That stance could be particularly attractive for some Democrats considering most legal experts believe the Supreme Court will overturn the Colorado decision.
That likelihood actually underscores the free spin that Republicans get to message on the ruling. If Congress is unlikely to act on this issue, and the Supreme Court is going to act promptly anyway, Republicans might as well improve their standing with MAGA voters.
And judging by the outpouring of GOP messaging, Republicans are happy to give Trump a win on this one.
