As long as a candidate meets the Constitutional requirements of citizen at birth, at least age 35, and not from the same state as the VP nominee, they can run in any state where they qualify for the ballot. (Major parties are automatically on the ballot.)

We’ve actually had people run while in prison. Eldridge Cleaver ran in 1968 and Eugene Debs ran in 1920 while serving a prison term for urging draft resistance in WWI. (In an interesting footnote, Debs, the Socialist, was prosecuted by the Democratic Administration of Woodrow Wilson, but his sentence was commuted by Republican President Warren G. Harding.)

The real question is how will the disgraced former President manage his campaign while under the microscopic control of anywhere from two to four criminal court judges and one civil court judge? (He’s already indicted in NY State and in federal court in Miami; expect indictments in the Georgia courts and the federal court in DC. There may be other criminal investigations in Michigan and Arizona. He also foolishly bought himself another civil suit when he repeated the lies that led to a five million dollar judgment against him for sexual battery and defamation.) These judges can order Trump to appear in court when they want him there they can set trials without regard to a campaign, they can punish Trump if he violates their orders, and of course, can sentence him if convicted of crimes.

Rest assured Trump will be ordered in every case to keep his mouth shut about the case and say nothing that might prejudice a jury pool or might appear to be witness intimidation. Will he be able to restrain himself as opponents like Chris Christie and Mike Pence go over every detail of the criminal charges and argue they make Trump unfit for office? They’ll be punching Trump on this day by day and he’ll have to sit there and take it or risk going to jail. That’s a volcano waiting to erupt.

In addition to the time and stress of facing multiple criminal indictments, there is also the cost. A first-class defense on all of these difficult cases will not be cheap. Legal fees alone in each one of the cases will run in the millions, and that’s before adding in investigators and experts. Will the usual big donors want to spend money on that, and will the cost of defense eat into the cost of campaigning?

I doubt whether any of this will move the hard core MAGA nut cases; they are a cult taking orders from their guru, Donald Trump. But not every potential Trump voter is that far gone, and there are Republicans who understand that Trump actually did all the things of which he is accused. Republicans who didn’t care about the sex charges may not be so forgiving when it comes to national security, election fraud, or insurrection. Others may simply grasp that a person under such a barrage of charges can’t be innocent of all of them, at least won’t beat all of them, and America needs to move on. If they had a viable alternative who wasn’t an angry, delusional authoritarian racist, one who could unite the different streams on non-Trump supporters, they might have a chance in the Presidential election. I don’t see any of the non-Trump candidates fitting that role, aside from Chris Christie, who let us say has his work cut out for him. Looks like as of now, the GOP is intent on committing political suicide next year.

And looks certain that sooner or later, Donald Trump goEs to the Big House, not the White House.