Democratic Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, the woman responsible for kicking former President Trump off the state’s 2024 election ballot, is a longtime left-wing activist and Democratic politician.
Bellows unilaterally removed Trump from the ballot Thursday night under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, barring individuals from running for office if they engaged in an insurrection. The former president has not been charged with, or convicted of, engaging in an insurrection.
Bellows became Maine’s Secretary of State in January of 2021 after she was elected by the legislature following two terms in the Maine senate from 2016-20, her official bio states. Her second term began in January of 2023 and goes for two years.
RENO, NEVADA – DECEMBER 17: Republican Presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a campaign rally at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center on December 17, 2023 in Reno, Nevada. Former U.S. President Trump held a campaign rally as he battles to become the Republican Presidential nominee for the 2024 Presidential election. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
From 2005-13, Bellows was the executive director of Maine’s branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a left-wing legal group, until she ran for senate in 2014 and lost handily to current Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who came out against Bellows’ ruling. (RELATED: Jared Golden Explains Why Trump Should Be Left On Maine Ballot)
Maine voters should decide who wins the election – not a Secretary of State chosen by the Legislature.
The Secretary of State’s decision would deny thousands of Mainers the opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice, and it should be overturned.
— Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) December 29, 2023
Bellows advocated for ranked-choice voting, same-sex marriage and same-day voter registration during her time leading Maine’s ACLU chapter. She got her start with the ACLU in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks as an organizer in the activist group’s Washington, D.C. office, an archived bulletin shows.
Before the ACLU, Bellows graduated from Middlebury College. She lives with her husband Brandon in Manchester, Maine, in the central part of the state. Middlebury is renowned as one of the most progressive liberal arts colleges in the northeast, and has been the subject of multiple political controversies regarding free speech on campus in recent years.
As a state senator, Bellows represented parts of Kennbec County, Maine, in the southern part of the state and chaired the Labor and Housing Committee. Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Bellows expressed support for then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden and said America must restore its civility.
Bellows called the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot an “insurrection” and called for Trump’s impeachment for his conduct leading up to the riot. “The fundamental right of any American citizen to vote freely, fairly and to have their vote counted is the premise of our democracy. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not values to be compromised away,” Bellows previously stated in a Jan. 4, 2022 social media post. (RELATED: Melanie Sloan Doubled As Media’s Go-To Hunter Biden Defender)
The fundamental right of any American citizen to vote freely, fairly and to have their vote counted is the premise of our democracy. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not values to be compromised away. #FreedomToVoteAct
— Shenna Bellows (@shennabellows) January 5, 2022
She appeared on CNN Thursday to defend her “unprecedented” decision to remove Trump from Maine’s ballot based on the insurrectionist ban.
“So — again, I am so mindful – and I said this in my decision – that it is unprecedented. No secretary of state has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the 14th Amendment. But no presidential candidate has ever engaged in insurrection and been disqualified under Section Three of the 14th Amendment,” Bellows asserted. Her comments echoed an earlier press release her office sent out explaining the decision.
Maine is the second state to remove Trump from its presidential ballot after Colorado’s supreme court ruled on Dec. 19 to disqualify Trump from its GOP primary. The Colorado Republican party is appealing the 4-3 decision to the Supreme Court, allowing Trump to remain on the ballot pending the highest court’s decision.
Trump is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, according to the RealClearPolitics state and national polling averages.
“The Maine Secretary of State is a former ACLU attorney, a virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat who has decided to interfere in the presidential election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden. We are witnessing, in real-time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
“We will quickly file a legal objection in state court to prevent this atrocious decision in Maine from taking effect, and President Trump will never stop fighting to Make America Great Again.”