Keller @ Large: Could Trump End Up Campaigning From Behind Bars?

By Jon Keller, CBS Boston

August 3, 2023

BOSTON - Former President Donald Trump is now facing more than 70 felony charges, and some carry prison sentences of up to 20 years.        Could Trump end up campaigning from behind bars? It's happened before.

Socialist Eugene V. Debs did it in 1920, touting his prison uniform number in campaign material. Seventy-two years later, fringe candidate Lyndon LaRouche also ran from his prison cell. And Boston political legend James Michael Curley won re-election to his state representative's seat while serving time for fraud.

But Trump would be the first major-party figure to run from the lockup, raising all sorts of logistical questions. "As a former president he's entitled to 24-hour Secret Service protection, and I just have no idea how that would work in a prison setting," says Boston College Law Professor Robert Bloom.

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