COLUMBUS, Ohio — The resignation letter was short and direct.
“I can no longer be under an oath to uphold the New Constitution of Ohio,” Sabrina Warner wrote in her letter announcing she was stepping down from the state’s Republican central committee.
It was just days after Ohio voters resoundingly approved an amendment last November to the state constitution ensuring access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care. For many, the vote was a victory after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
For Warner, a staunch abortion opponent, it meant she could no longer stand by the Ohio Constitution she swore an oath to uphold just over a year before.

Missouri senators recite the Pledge of Allegiance as the chamber convenes its annual session on Jan. 3 in Jefferson City.
Throughout modern American history, elected officials have sworn oaths to uphold constitutions and said the Pledge of Allegiance without much controversy. Recently, these routine practices have fallen victim to the same political divisions that left the country deeply polarized.
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Disagreements over abortion rights, gun control and treatment of racial minorities are some of the issues that caused several political leaders to say they cannot take an oath or recite the pledge.
Some Republicans, including Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a candidate for governor, point to amendments enshrining abortion rights in state constitutions. Ohio’s protections passed last fall, and advocates are proposing an initiative for the Missouri ballot this year.
In Tennessee this month, Democratic Rep. Justin Jones declined to lead the pledge during a legislative session. He gained national attention after being one of two Black lawmakers Republicans briefly expelled from the state House last year after he and two other Democrats participated in a demonstration advocating for gun control from the House floor, outraging GOP members because it violated the chamber’s rules.
Tennessee House members are tapped to find a minister to lead a prayer before the start of a session and then to lead the chamber in the pledge to the American flag. Jones submitted a handwritten note to the House clerk that read, “I prefer not to lead the pledge of allegiance.”
His refusal came as he criticized his Republican colleagues for being racist and focusing on what he said are the wrong issues, such as targeting the LGBTQ+ community rather than addressing gun control nearly a year after six people, including three children, were killed in a school shooting in Nashville.

Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, speaks outside the House chamber after the State of the State address Feb. 5 in Nashville, Tenn.
While another Democratic lawmaker, an Army veteran, led the pledge without commenting on Jones’ refusal, Republicans quickly expressed their outrage. GOP Rep. Jeremy Faison called Jones’ refusal to say the Pledge of Allegiance a “disgrace.”
“In my opinion, he should resign. That is an embarrassment to veterans and to people who have come before us,” Faison said.
Jones, responding later to the Republican criticism, said he “couldn’t bring myself to join their performative patriotism as they continue to support an insurrectionist for president and undermine liberty and justice for all.”
Similarly in 2001, then-Tennessee Rep. Henri Brooks said she was chastised by Republican leaders for refusing to join her fellow lawmakers in the pledge. Brooks, who is Black, said she hadn’t recited the pledge since being in third grade and declined to do so because the American flag represented the Colonies that enslaved her ancestors.
This year, former President Donald Trump refused to sign a loyalty oath in Illinois in place since the McCarthy era.
The part Trump left unsigned confirms candidates “do not directly or indirectly teach or advocate the overthrow of the government” of the United States or the state or “any unlawful change in the form of the governments thereof by force or any unlawful means.” Trump, who signed the voluntary oath in 2016 and 2020, has yet to say why he didn’t sign it this time.
He has faced a number of state lawsuits seeking to bar him from the ballot for to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, an issue before the U.S. Supreme Court.
His spokesman, Steven Cheung, told news outlets in January: “President Trump will once again take the oath of office on January 20th, 2025, and will swear ‘to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.'”

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft speaks to reporters June 29, 2022, at his Capitol office in Jefferson City, Mo.
In Missouri, Ashcroft drew attention in October when he suggested he might not be able to take the oath of office as governor if voters protect a right to abortion in the state Constitution.
“Any time a statewide official is sworn in, we swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Missouri,” he told reporters after an abortion-related court hearing. “If I cannot do that, then I would have to leave my position. I cannot swear an oath and then refuse to do what I’d said I would do.”
The issue also roiled Republicans in the Missouri Senate. State Sen. Rick Brattin, head of the state’s chapter of the Freedom Caucus, said if voters in November approve a proposed ballot initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, “You would have to swear an oath to protect and to defend the death of the unborn.”
Who’s running for president? See the latest rundown of major 2024 candidates
Donald Trump

The former president announced his third campaign for the White House on Nov. 15, 2022, at his Mar-a-Lago resort, forcing the party to decide whether to embrace a candidate whose refusal to accept defeat in 2020 sparked the U.S. Capitol attack and still dominates his speeches.
The GOP front-runner remains hugely popular in the Republican Party, despite making history as the first president to be impeached twice and inciting the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Referring to himself as America’s “most pro-life president,” Trump nominated three conservative judges to the Supreme Court, paving the way for the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which had legalized abortion nationwide for nearly 50 years. Sweeping criminal justice reforms he signed into law in 2019 eased mandatory minimum sentences and gave judges more discretion in sentencing.
In March, Trump became the first former U.S. president to be criminally charged, facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush-money scheme. Since then, he has been charged with 57 more felonies in three other criminal cases, accused of mishandling and unlawfully retaining classified documents and trying to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.
His overwhelming win in the lead-off Iowa caucuses signaled his dominant position in the race for the GOP nomination.
Nikki Haley

The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor became the first major GOP challenger to Trump when she kicked off her campaign on Feb. 15 in Charleston. She is the only woman in the GOP field.
The former Trump Cabinet official once said she wouldn’t challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024. But she changed her mind, citing the country’s economic troubles and the need for “generational change,” a nod to the 77-year-old Trump’s age.
Haley was third in the Iowa caucuses, finishing just behind DeSantis.
Joe Biden

President Joe Biden formally announced his reelection campaign on April 25 in a video, asking voters for time to “finish this job.”
Biden, the oldest president in American history, would be 86 at the end of a second term, and his age has prompted some of his critics to question whether he can serve effectively. A notable number of Democratic voters indicated they would prefer he not run, though he is expected to easily win the Democratic nomination.
Biden, who has vowed to “restore the soul of America,” plans to run on his record. He spent his first two years as president combating the coronavirus pandemic and pushing through major bills such as the bipartisan infrastructure package and legislation to promote high-tech manufacturing and climate measures.
Dean Phillips

The Minnesota congressman is the first elected Democrat to challenge Biden for the nomination. After months of calling for a primary challenger, Dean Phillips entered the race himself on Oct. 27 with a speech outside New Hampshire’s statehouse.
While Phillips has been effusive in his praise for Biden, the 54-year-old also says Democrats need younger voices to avoid a nightmare scenario where Trump wins another election next fall.
Phillips is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and heir to his stepfather’s Phillips Distilling Company empire, which holds major vodka and schnapps brands. He once served as that company’s president but also ran the gelato maker Talenti. His grandmother was the late Pauline Phillips, better known as the advice columnist “Dear Abby.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The bestselling author and environmental lawyer announced on Oct. 9 that he was ending his Democratic presidential bid and instead launching an independent run.
A nephew of President John F. Kennedy and son of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he initially launched a long-shot bid to challenge Biden for the Democratic nomination on April 19 in Boston. He said in announcing his party switch that he intended to be a spoiler candidate for both Biden and Trump.
Kennedy has emerged as one of the leading voices of the anti-vaccine movement, with public health experts and even members of his own family describing his work as misleading and dangerous. He has also been linked to far-right figures in recent years.
Jill Stein

The environmental activist, whose 2016 third-party presidential bid was blamed by Democrats for helping Trump win the White House, says she is making another run for the nation’s highest office.
Jill Stein announced Nov. 9 that she will again run under the Green Party banner. “I’m running for president to offer that choice for the people outside of the failed two-party system,” she said.
She ran against Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 as a Green Party candidate and received about 1% of the vote. Some Democrats said her candidacy siphoned votes away from Clinton, particularly in swing states like Wisconsin.
Cornel West

The progressive activist and scholar announced Oct. 5 that he was ending his bid for the presidency under the Green Party banner and was instead running as an independent.
West wrote on X that he was running as an independent to “end the iron grip of the ruling class and ensure true democracy!” He added, “We need to break the grip of the duopoly and give power to the people.”
He initially announced in June that he would be running as a member of The People’s Party before soon switching to the Green Party.
Who’s dropped out?

Republicans: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Christie, Ramaswamy, Hutchinson, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, radio show host Larry Elder, businessman Perry Johnson, former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd of Texas and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.