While the US supreme court appears poised to allow Donald Trump to remain on the ballot this year, a small New Mexico county on the Texas border may stand alone as the only place where the 14th amendment has been used in recent times to remove a government official from the ballot.
Couy Griffin, a county commissioner until 2022 in Otero county, which has a population of around 69,000 people, became the first official in more than a century to be removed from office under a little-used provision in the 14th amendment that bans insurrectionists from holding office. Griffin, the founder of a group called Cowboys for Trump, had been convicted of illegally entering the US Capitol grounds on January 6, a misdemeanor.
