Trump primary challengers to be excluded from Minnesota ballot

President Trump’s Republican presidential challengers will be excluded from Minnesota’s primary ballot, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Thursday. 

Trump’s name was the only one listed on the Republican Party of Minnesota’s letter to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office outlining its “determination of candidates” for the primary ballot, according to the newspaper. 

This means that former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld (R), former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) and former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) were not listed in the Oct. 24 letter from state party chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan.

A spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office told the Star Tribune that while parties are allowed to request a space for write-in candidates or for voters to choose that delegates to the national convention are uncommitted, the party did not do so. 

Carnahan told The Hill in a statement Thursday that the Trump campaign was the only presidential campaign to contact the state party as of the filing. 

“President Trump’s campaign has been working with the Republican Party of Minnesota regarding the upcoming ballot for months. As of the filing, no other Presidential candidates have reached out to the MNGOP,” Carnahan said. 

Walsh’s campaign manager Lucy Caldwell told the newspaper that the move is “appalling but unsurprising news, given the hold that Trump’s cult of personality has over some of these state party leaders.”

“The people who are being wronged in this are the voters of Minnesota, whose rights are being disenfranchised,” Caldwell said. 

Several Republican parties have also canceled their primaries in support of Trump.