Arkansas election officials have blocked Turkish radical leftist Cenk Uygur from appearing on the Democrat 2024 presidential primary ballot. Despite being born in Turkey, Uygur insists he can overcome the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that a president must be a natural-born citizen.
While the Constitution specifies that a candidate must be at least 35 years old and a natural-born citizen, Uygur argues that these requirements amount to “bigotry.” This decision follows Uygur’s earlier claim of becoming the first naturalized citizen on a presidential ballot after filing paperwork with the state and the Arkansas Democratic Party, despite his parents immigrating to the U.S. from Turkey when he was 8.
“My office has received your candidate filing paperwork,” Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston said in a letter to Uygur.
“However, based on your own proclamation, you are not qualified to hold the elected office for which you filed.
“Therefore, I cannot, in good faith, certify your name to the ballot.”
Cenk Uygur has faced rejections in several states, including key primary states like New Hampshire and Nevada, in his quest to appear on their 2024 presidential primary ballots. Uygur claims that officials are treating naturalized citizens as “second-class” and contends that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution makes him eligible to run for president.
“This is the last form of acceptable bigotry in American society and I’m going to fight it with every fiber of my being,” Uygur said in a statement.
“I’m not going to accept that I don’t belong in my own country.”
Uygur, co-creator of the left-leaning online news and commentary show “The Young Turks,” declared his challenge to President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in October.
With a previous unsuccessful attempt for a California congressional seat, Uygur’s eligibility for the Arkansas primary ballot became a matter of contention. Reed Brewer, spokesperson for the Arkansas Democratic Party, asserted that, based on precedent court rulings, the party lacked the authority to determine Uygur’s eligibility for the ballot.
“Because of the vagaries of state law, rejecting a filing is simply not an option for us,” Brewer said.
