With the 2024 election year commencing in just days, the new year will kick off with several key decisions and events that could have significant implications for former President Donald Trump and the race for the White House.
The first month of the year alone is poised to bring major developments in the legal cases against Trump, the current frontrunner for the GOP nomination, as the first 2024 voters take to the polls.
Here are the significant dates in January to watch for:
Less than a week into the new year, the stay in the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling disqualifying Trump from the state’s primary ballot will expire, unless the nation’s high court steps in. Earlier this month, Colorado’s highest court found the former president ineligible to be president again under a section of the 14th Amendment regarding insurrection, with the majority of the court finding Trump engaged in one on Jan. 6, 2021 and is subject to the law.
It marked the first time Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was cited to disqualify someone as a presidential candidate after efforts to keep the former president off the ballot were rejected in other states. On Wednesday, Michigan became the latest state to dismiss such an attempt.
Colorado’s high court paused its decision until Jan. 4, one day before the state must print its presidential ballots for its Mar. 5 primary. However, if the Supreme Court steps in to review the case before the stay is set to lapse, the pause will remain and Colorado’s secretary will include Trump’s name on the ballot until an official decision from the nation’s highest court is handed down, according to the ruling.
This could serve as a major date in the federal criminal case led by special counsel Jack Smith regarding Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. On Jan. 9, The DC Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear oral arguments surrounding Trump’s request to throw out the case on the grounds he is protected by presidential immunity.
Trump’s legal team is arguing that a current or former president may not be criminally prosecuted for official acts unless the Senate first impeaches and convicts them. On Saturday, his team asked a federal appeals court to toss a lower-court ruling that rejected the immunity argument. In 2021, the then GOP-led Senate voted to acquit Trump on an impeachment charge involving his actions on Jan. 6.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court declined to grant Smith’s request for the high court to take up the case on an expedited basis before the appeals court weighed in. It could all impact the Mar. 4 start-date of the trial.
Closing arguments in the civil business fraud trial against Trump in New York will begin following a Jan. 5 deadline for both sides to submit written summations. The judge has already found the former president liable for fraud in the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James but a possible penalty still must be decided.
Testimony in the trial wrapped up earlier this month after 11 weeks that saw more than 40 witnesses. Judge Arthur Engoron has said he hopes to have a decision by the end of January, according to The Associated Press.
The first nominating contest of the 2024 presidential election will commence with the Iowa caucuses. On Jan. 15, voters in the state will gather to decide which Republican candidate they want to send to November’s general contest, marking the first time Trump’s immense lead in polls will be tested with actual results.
According to recent surveys in the Hawkeye State, the former president holds a commanding lead over all of his GOP rivals, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis most consistently in second place but battling for the spot with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Just over a week after the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire voters will take to the ballot booths for the first primary in the nation. Here, while still the frontrunner, Trump has a less sizable lead over his fellow GOP White House hopefuls. Recent polls show Haley, who is fresh off receiving an endorsement from the state’s popular Republican governor, within range of the former president in the Granite State.
The country will be looking to glean any insight it can into the overall state of the 2024 presidential race with these early contests, including the size and strength of the former president’s lead within the party. And it all sets off a year set to bring a plethora of legal developments and election results.