Democratic senators want to keep Trump on the ballot in 2024, even as he faces potential disqualification under the 14th amendment

• The Supreme Court could rule soon on whether Trump can be disqualified via the 14th amendment.
• But many Democratic senators aren't keen on the idea — and want him to stay on the ballot.
• "The answer is to defeat Trump in November," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, a vulnerable Democrat.

The Supreme Court could soon rule on whether former President Donald Trump can be disqualified from appearing on 2024 ballots under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

But Democratic senators aren't exactly rooting for a disqualification.

"The answer is to defeat Trump in November. That's the answer to me, period," said Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. "I just don't want him to be president for another four years. Leave it at that."

Brown's response is perhaps unsurprising: He faces a tough reelection campaign this year in a state that Trump carried in both 2016 and 2020. Many of his potential voters are likely sympathetic to the arguments made by the former president and his allies — that disqualifying Trump via the 14th amendment is itself undemocratic.

But it's not just vulnerable Democrats who feel that way.

"I see the legal merits of the argument," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. "But the political reality is that I want to beat that guy at the ballot box, and I'm confident Joe Biden can do that."

In December, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump was disqualified from appearing on the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which bars individuals who have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding office.

That was followed up by a similar decision from Maine Secretary of State Shana Bellows less than two weeks later, and several other states have pending challenges.

The Supreme Court agreed to take up the question following the Trump campaign's appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court decision, and even Bellows acknowledged in her ruling that her move "could soon be rendered a nullity by a decision of the United States Supreme Court."

"Well, the Supreme Court's taking it up, so we'll see what the Supreme Court has to say," said Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, declining to weigh in on the actual decision.

But this wouldn't be the first time that Section 3 of the 14th amendment has been used to disqualify a candidate — last year, a New Mexico judge booted a local New Mexico politician from office who had been convicted of trespassing at the Capitol on January 6.

But that was the first time the provision had been successfully used since 1869.

Some Democrats have endorsed or otherwise praised the idea, including Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

"I think we have to follow the Constitution," said Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, stressing that the politics of the situation should be "set aside completely."

"The plain reading of the Constitution is that someone who's engaged in insurrection can't hold an office," said Merkley. "So I hope the Supreme Court does an honorable, non-political job of evaluating the situation."

But the bulk of the party seems interested in either side-stepping the question or deferring to the high court.

"I haven't really thought all that much about it," said Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

"There seems to be very little question that Donald Trump incited and invited a group to storm the Capitol [on January 6]," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The [Supreme Court] will decide the legal issue of whether the 14th amendment applies."

And some even argue that booting Trump from ballots may only be helpful for Trump.

"All of that is a gift to Trump. And all it does is just make him more popular and strong," Fetterman told the Daily Beast last week. "That's just going to energize his base—it's just not helpful."