Since the presidential race is a state by state race for electors, could he just not run in his home state and forgo the 8 electors there? Or does the law apply to running for president in other states too?
I imagine he'd have a problem with that. States decide how electoral votes are allocated. Nothing says that electoral votes need to be allocated through popular vote; South Carolina didn't have a presidential election until well after the Civil War. Prior to that the legislature decided who the electoral votes went to. But such a change would probably need to be passed by the state legislature, and voting to deny the entire state the chance to vote on president is probably not something the legislators would be willing to do.