(NewsNation) — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Monday she agreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to allow her opponent Donald Trump on the Colorado primary ballot.
“We don’t ever want some elected official in a state or anybody else saying who can and can’t be on the ballot. This is America,” former South Carolina Gov. Haley said, speaking to voters at a rally in Spring, Texas. “Look, I’ll defeat Donald Trump fair and square but I want him on that ballot.”
Colorado’s state Supreme Court had blocked the former president from the ballot for his attempts to undo his loss in the 2020 election and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol.
However, on Monday in a 9-0 vote, Supreme Court justices said states cannot do this.
“We conclude that states may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office,” justices wrote in their ruling. “But states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency.”
This decision ends efforts in Illinois and Maine to take Trump off the ballot and comes a day before Super Tuesday primaries. Recently, Haley got her first Republican primary win in Washington, D.C., receiving 1,274 votes in comparison to Trump’s 676. Still, Trump has won every other race against her so far.
“We are anywhere and everywhere trying to let people know what their choices tomorrow,” Haley said Monday. “The choice comes down to this: We can either have more of the same or we can go in a new direction. More of the same is not just Joe Biden, more of the same is Donald Trump.”