LIMA — A campaign to block several Trump supporters in Congress from appearing on 2022 ballots because of their alleged role in the Jan. 6 insurrection has set its sites on Rep. Jim Jordan, one of former President Donald Trump’s most outspoken supporters in Congress.
Protesters gathered outside Jordan’s Lima office Saturday to urge Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose to investigate whether Jordan’s actions before and during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot may be considered “insurrectionist.”
The protesters are citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, a post-Civil War era amendment that prohibited former Confederate officials from holding public office.
“We have a very simple message: We want Secretary of State Frank LaRose to do his job,” said Taft Mangas, one of the event organizers. “We don’t believe that Jim Jordan is qualified to be on the ballot.”
What is Sec. 3?
In the aftermath of Jan. 6, some legal scholars speculated that Sec. 3 of the 14th Amendment offered Congress an alternative to impeachment that would remove Trump from office and ban the former president from running for public office again.
Sec. 3 prohibits anyone who has taken an oath to the Constitution from holding public office if they have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. or provided “aid or comfort” to its enemies.
The section was originally applied to former Confederates after the Civil War but has been revived by those who claim Trump’s actions on and before Jan. 6 should disqualify him from holding office.
Activists are applying that same reasoning in a campaign to unseat several Trump allies in Congress, including North Carolina Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn and Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks.
Jordan is the latest congressman targeted by the campaign, which is asking the Ohio secretary of state to investigate whether Jordan’s actions before and during Jan. 6, “are properly characterized as insurrectionist or as having given aid and comfort to America’s enemies,” according to a draft letter published on the Action Network, a progressive fundraising website.
Jordan’s office responded via email Friday: “Nothing says Democracy like keeping someone’s name off the ballot,” said Russell Dye, a Jordan spokesman.
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