California Lt. Gov. Kounalakis urges removing Trump from the ballot

California Democratic Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis on Wednesday urged California Secretary of State Shirley Weber to explore legal avenues to boot former President Donald Trump from the state's primary ballot in the wake of a court ruling in Colorado determining his ineligibility to return to the White House.

The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday determined that Trump had engaged in an insurrection by inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Riot, disqualifying him from seeking the presidency under the 14th Amendment. The judges ordered his removal from the ballot but stayed that directive until Jan. 4, 2024. Trump has vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court.

In the wake of the ruling, Kounalakis wrote to Weber, insisting that removing Trump "is about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of democracy," CBS News reported.

Trump currently stands as the clear frontrunner in the Republican primary, leading the field by an average 53.7%, according to RealClearPolitics. He further leads Biden by 2.6%.

The California Republican primary is slated for March 5 and the final candidate list is due Dec. 28.

The Trump campaign called Colorado's decision politically motivated and observed that all of the judges on the panel had been appointed by Democrats.

"Unsurprisingly, the all-Democrat appointed Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, supporting a Soros-funded, left-wing group's scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden by removing President Trump's name from the ballot and eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice," campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.