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A Republican presidential candidate has claimed he is "steps away" from "effectively" denying Donald Trump the ability to gain the 270 electoral college votes necessary to win the 2024 election, despite legal doubts being cast on his challenge.
John Anthony Castro, who has run unsuccessfully for several elected offices in his home state of Texas prior to filing for the Republican presidential nomination, is seeking injunctions in various jurisdictions to bar the GOP primary frontrunner from being allowed to stand.
Filings he previously shared on social media show challenges to Trump's candidacy in Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, North Carolina, West Virginia, Montana, Kansas and Idaho. He has also reportedly filed a claim in New Hampshire.
Denying the likely Republican nominee access to the ballots would deprive him of as many as 50 electoral college votes before a single polling station had opened.
"They think what I'm doing is a 'political stunt,'" Castro wrote on X, formerly Twitter on Wednesday evening. "Denial is powerful."
He added: "I'm steps away from securing the 9th Circuit behind me along with the 1st and 4th Circuits, which effectively denies Trump a path to 270 electoral votes."
The tax consultant's remarks appear to contend he may be close to a legal win over the states of Idaho, North Carolina, West Virginia and New Hampshire, though he provided no evidence of any legal advances that might justify his claims.
To the contrary, Elgine McArdle, chair of the West Virginia Republican Party, filed a motion this week to intervene in the case on behalf of the state party against Castro's case.
"I cannot and will not stand idly by as our voters are deprived of their choices in the presidential election," she wrote in a statement. "This legal challenge is the latest assault on President Trump, his campaign, and his supporters."
Newsweek approached the Trump campaign via email for comment on Thursday.
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed around the country seeking to disqualify Trump from running in 2024 based on the 14th Amendment, which bars anyone who swore an oath to the U.S. Constitution and then "engaged in insurrection" from running for elected office.
Castro and others argue that Trump's alleged role in the January 6, 2021 uprising on the U.S. Capitol—in which he is accused of encouraging the demonstrators, something he has denied—precludes him from being re-elected as president.
Among the legal challenges is one brought by the liberal group Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which seeks to bar him from appearing on ballots in Colorado, which has 10 electoral college votes. The case is the first of its kind to be brought by a group with significant legal resources.
On Friday, District Judge Sarah B. Wallace issued the protective order, prohibiting parties in the case from making threatening or intimidating statements, based on "what we've seen in other cases," an apparent allusion to Trump's public statements about the criminal cases he faces. Castro claimed this showed the "walls are closing in" on Trump.
One of Castro's lawsuits, brought in Florida, has already been dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump in 2020 and faced scrutiny over a ruling she issued in a separate case charging Trump with mishandling classified documents.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani previously told Newsweek that Castro's attempts to have Trump disqualified were a "long shot" and amounted to a "Hail Mary" for his political opponents, as the 14th Amendment had not been used in the same manner before.
"The reasons why Castro's efforts probably won't succeed are that Trump hasn't been charged with, much less convicted of, insurrection or rebellion," he said. "A conviction is not required under the plain language of the Constitution, but it's telling that even those prosecuting Trump don't believe that there is enough evidence to convict him or insurrection or sedition."
Rahmani added that if the matter were to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, it was "unlikely" to rule against the former president, owing to its current conservative majority.
Castro is not listed in recent polls of an already packed Republican primary field, which includes candidates attracting zero percent of likely voters.
About the writer
Aleks Phillips is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter based in London. His focus is on U.S. politics and the environment. ... Read more