The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that state election officials must include leading presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) on the state’s Democratic primary ballot.
In a unanimous ruling, the court ruled that the bipartisan Presidential Selection Commission, which is responsible for approving candidates for the April 2 Wisconsin primary, put President Biden’s name on the ballot during a brief meeting in January. When it was rubber-stamped, it acknowledged that there had been no discussion of Mr. Phillips.
“The chairs of both parties listed the names of the candidates their respective parties wanted to appear on the presidential ballot. The chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party listed the names of the candidates that their respective parties wanted to appear on the presidential primary ballot. The selection committee unanimously adopted, without any discussion, a motion to place the names submitted by the party chair on the ballot.” The court’s opinion states:.
“The selection committee did not discuss Mr. Phillips or any of the other Democratic presidential primary candidates at all. The entire meeting lasted just over five minutes.”
Wisconsin’s statute requires that “all candidates whose candidacy is commonly advocated or recognized in national news media throughout the United States” be placed on the primary ballot.
Phillips, 55, launched his insurgent presidential campaign last October and has appeared on national news programs several times since then.
Biden won just under 20% of the vote in last month’s New Hampshire primary, and his supporters, whose names did not appear on the ballot due to a scheduling dispute with the Democratic National Committee and state officials, wrote in. Biden won because he started. During the campaign.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled, “We conclude that the Presidential Candidate Selection Committee erroneously exercised its discretion under (state law) with respect to Mr. Phillips,” adding the Minnesota Democratic Party’s name to the election. The court also ruled that there was no evidence to suggest that it was too late to do so. Preliminary vote.
At the same meeting, the selection committee also added former President Donald Trump and five other Republican challengers to the vote, including four who have since suspended their campaigns.
Phillips accused the Democratic National Committee of attempting to sabotage the presidential primary process. Democratic primary election schedule changerefused to hold a debate and prevented delegates from New Hampshire from participating.
“I don’t know how to better describe these efforts as anything more than a threat to democracy by undermining democracy and suppressing it,” Phillips told the Post last month.
