GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s proposal of a Colorado boycott in the wake of the state’s top court booting former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot has not won over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis was asked about Ramaswamy’s proposed Colorado boycott by Philip Wegmann in an article published Wednesday by RealClearPolitics, and dismissed it out of hand.
“If one of Trump’s competitors was removed by a state Supreme Court,” DeSantis told the reporter, “is there any chance in hell he would remove himself in solidarity? He’d spike the football!”
READ MORE: Majority of Americans Support Removing Trump from Colorado Ballot
Ramaswamy announced on December 19 that he was withdrawing from the Colorado primary, according to ABC News. He made his decision following the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump was ineligible to appear on the ballot under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, specifically its Insurrection Clause. The clause keeps anyone who participated in a rebellion or insurrection from holding office. It was passed in 1866, a year after the Civil War, and ratified two years later.
“I pledge to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary ballot until Trump is also allowed to be on the ballot, and I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Nikki Haley do the same immediately – or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country,” Ramaswamy said.
He told the network he predicted he wouldn’t be alone in the Colorado boycott.
“I think every Republican will end up withdrawing, which means that that won’t affect anyone’s path to the nomination,” he said.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie criticized the Colorado ruling, calling it “bad for the country” for a court to remove a candidate from the ballot, according to The Hill. Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley echoed Christie’s comments, calling Trump’s removal by the judges “the last thing we want,” according to the Des Moines Register. But only DeSantis has directly addressed Ramaswamy’s call to boycott the primaries; the other candidates appear to have ignored it entirely.
Either way, however, it appears that Trump has little to fear from either DeSantis or Ramaswamy. Many recent polls show Trump as the far-and-away frontrunner with, on average, 61.2% support, according to FiveThirtyEight. Haley and DeSantis are jockeying for second and third place with 11.0% and 11.7% each on average. Ramaswamy is in a distant fourth at 3.5% and Christie has 3.4%.
DeSantis also has the added complication of the trouble with his Never Back Down Super PAC cancelling ad buys, according to CBS News. The PAC has also lost an important strategist, Jeff Roe, NBC News reports.
A Colorado boycott of the primary may not even be relevant. The state GOP has said that if the ruling barring Trump is allowed to stand, it will change its nominating process to a caucus instead of a primary election.