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(JTA) – When Shenna Bellows was appointed Maine’s secretary of state in 2020, she described how her earlier job at a Holocaust training middle made her particularly suited to the function.
Bellows, the previous govt director of the Holocaust and Human Rights Heart of Maine, tweeted that her work with Holocaust survivors “has taught me a lot about how fragile and valuable democracy is and in regards to the significance of documenting and preserving our historical past to share with the long run generations.”
Now, Bellows has issued what could also be one among her state’s most consequential rulings in years: that former President Donald Trump shouldn’t be eligible to look on Maine’s main poll as a result of his actions on Jan. 6, 2021 violated the U.S. Structure’s 14th Modification.
In contrast to in Michigan and Colorado, the place selections on Trump’s poll eligibility had been just lately made by these states’ Supreme Courts, Maine’s was made by Bellows alone — placing her, and maybe her expertise as a Holocaust educator, within the political highlight for 2024.
In her resolution, Bellows echoed her personal phrases about her work on the Holocaust middle: that she was primarily involved with defending democracy.
“I don’t attain this conclusion frivolously. Democracy is sacred,” she wrote in her Thursday resolution ruling Trump ineligible. Nevertheless, she acknowledged, “The burden of the proof makes clear that Mr. Trump was conscious of the tinder laid by his multi-month effort to delegitimize a democratic election, after which selected to mild a match.”
Bellows’ resolution has been met with fury from Trump and his supporters. Shortly earlier than she made the ruling, Trump’s authorized staff had argued she ought to recuse herself, claiming she was biased as a result of she had already decided that the occasions of Jan. 6 constituted an rebel. After the ruling, a Trump aide known as Bellows a “virulent leftist,” whereas Trump himself, on his Reality Social platform, posted a hyperlink to the Maine secretary of state web site.
Makes an attempt to succeed in the middle for remark had been returned with an automatic message that it’s closed for the vacations.
A Democrat who served two phrases within the Maine Senate, Bellows was the Maine Holocaust middle’s director from 2018-2020, concurrently along with her second time period within the legislature. She left the place after the state legislature appointed her as Maine’s first feminine secretary of state. (In contrast to in different states the place the place is elected by voters, Maine’s is appointed by lawmakers.)
Her Trump resolution made Maine the second state, after Colorado, to rule the previous president ineligible for its main poll primarily based on the Riot Clause. The transfer units the stage for a extremely consequential authorized battle that can probably quickly play out earlier than the nation’s highest court docket. Trump’s staff has appealed the Colorado resolution to the Supreme Court docket, and Bellows mentioned she acknowledged their resolution might quickly nullify her personal.
Michigan’s Supreme Court docket has additionally individually dominated that Trump can keep on their state’s main poll, however that the door was nonetheless open for his removing from its common election poll.
Beforehand, Bellows had been the pinnacle of the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and based a consulting agency for nonprofits. She ran because the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 2014 towards well-liked Republican Susan Collins and was soundly defeated, successful solely 31% of the statewide vote.
Based in 1985 by Holocaust survivor Gerda Haas, the Holocaust and Human Rights Heart of Maine is situated on the College of Maine’s campus within the state capital of Augusta. It focuses on training, providing programs to the state’s faculties and programming visitor audio system. An upcoming “Dialog on Antisemitism,” to be held in January, is marketed as specializing in “the antisemitism and hate that we’re seeing because of the October seventh Hamas assaults in Israel and the conflict in Gaza,” whereas additionally noting, “We gained’t be speaking in regards to the present conflict or the Israeli/Palestinian battle on the whole.”
On the time Bellows was promoted to secretary of state, the museum’s leaders celebrated her time there. “The HHRC has thrived beneath Shenna’s management, particularly within the areas of board improvement and grant writing,” Affiliate Director David Greenham mentioned in a press launch. Board member Nancy Spiegel added, “Her organizational and financial management expertise have given us the flexibility to firmly climate this previous 12 months’s uncertainties. I’m going to overlook her however know she will probably be a robust and succesful Secretary of State for Maine.”
Even after she left the middle, Bellows has continued to advocate for Holocaust education and Jewish issues on social media, and he or she shared a latest story about Israeli hostages from Hamas’ Oct. 7 assaults.
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