Former President Donald Trump's status as a newly minted convicted felon may have created an awkward conundrum for the Vermont Republican Party, as the organization's own rules ban it from supporting felons for elective office.
Last week, Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes when jurors in New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to unlawfully cover up a scheme to tilt the 2016 election through a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who said the two had sex. (Trump pleaded not guilty to charges and denied having an affair with Daniels.)
Vermont's Republican Party appears to be abiding by its own rules in the days following the conviction, which state under section 16: The state committee will not support or promote any candidate for elective office who ... is a convicted felon." NBC News first reported on the ban's existence and found it dates back at least nine years. The rule appeared to have changed in 2022 to allow the executive committee to, by majority vote, exempt a candidate from the convicted felon ban "under extenuating circumstances."
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Raw Story has reached out to the organization for comment and will update when we hear back.
The Democratic National Committee said the Vermont GOP should consider supporting Trump's opponent in the general election.
"We look forward to the Vermont Republican Party supporting Joe Biden this November — the only candidate with a path to 270 that has not been convicted of a felony," Abhi Rahman, the organization's deputy communications director, told NBC News in a statement Thursday.
