After November’s election ushered in a new era of unified Republican rule in Washington, Democratic leaders across the country are once again preparing to lead resistance to the policies of Donald Trump’s second term.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said he would convene a special legislative session next month to “defend California’s values and fundamental rights.”
Bob Ferguson, Washington state’s next governor and current attorney general, said his legal team has been preparing for a possible second term for Trump for months, including the project It also included a “line-by-line” review of the changes, he said. A more than 900-page policy blueprint for 2025 drafted by the president-elect’s conservative allies.
And the governors of Illinois and Colorado this week sought retribution against political opponents and sought to protect state-level institutions from the threat of authoritarianism as the country prepares for a president vowed to rule only as a dictator. announced a new alliance. On the “first day”.
“We know that simple hope alone cannot save our democracy,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said on a conference call announcing a group called Governors Defending Democracies. “We need to work together, especially at the state level, to protect and strengthen it.”
With Democrats out of control in Washington, many in the party will look to blue state leaders (governors, attorneys general, mayors) as a bulwark against a second Trump administration. For these ambitious Democrats, this is also an opportunity to step into the leadership vacuum left by Kamala Harris’ defeat.
Progressives such as Newsom and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker are considered possible presidential candidates in 2028, while Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, Kentucky’s Andy Beshear and Michigan’s Gretchen・Democratic governors in states that voted for Trump, such as Whitmer, are seen as models. On how the party can begin to rebuild its coalition. And Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, has returned to Minnesota with two years left in his term as governor, garnering national attention.
Leaders of the nascent Blue State Resistance are preemptively “stopping Trump” against conservative governance policies they cast as a threat to voters’ values and safety. As a candidate, President Trump promised to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history.” In statements and public remarks, several Democratic lawmakers have criticized the Trump administration’s efforts to limit access to medical abortions and provide reproductive health care to women in states that ban abortion. He says he is concerned that the government may try to weaken the government. They also anticipate actions by the Trump administration to roll back environmental regulations and expand gun rights.
“To those who seek to take away the freedom, opportunity, and dignity of Illinoisans, I want to remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior. You are here for my people, you are through me. It’s coming,” Pritzker said last week.
Unlike 2016, when Mr. Trump’s victory shocked the nation, leaders in blue states say they can rely on tried and tested strategies. But they also acknowledge that Trump 2.0 could pose new and more difficult challenges.
Ferguson said Trump’s executive actions during his first term were “often sloppy,” which created room for states to successfully challenge them in court. Eight years later, after studying Project 2025 and President Trump’s Agenda 47, he predicts that President-elect Trump will be “better prepared” this time.
Pritzker said President Trump is surrounded by people who are “absolute supporters of the cult of personality and don’t necessarily follow the law.” “Last time, we didn’t really know where the levers of government were,” the governor said on a call with reporters this week. “I think he probably does that now.”
The courts are also more conservative than they were when Trump took office eight years ago, with many influential federal appeals court judges and three prominent federal appeals court judges in Trump’s first term. This is a direct result of the inclusion of Supreme Court justices.
The political situation has also changed. In 2016, Trump won the electoral college but lost the popular vote. Despite Republicans controlling Congress, there were many Trump skeptics who were prepared to oppose the president, at least initially, during his first two years in office.
This time, Mr. Trump is almost certain to win the popular vote, with surprising victories in some of the most powerful parts of the country.
Although the former president was far from winning in his home state of New York, he made significant inroads, especially on Long Island. In her post-election press conference last week, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul struck a more neutral tone. Mr. Hochul, who could face a tough re-election in 2026, vowed to protect voters from federal government overreach, while declaring he was ready to work with “him or anyone, regardless of party.”
In New Jersey, President Trump’s loss narrowed from 16 points in 2020 to 5 points in 2024, a result that Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy acknowledged was “sobering” for the party and the country. Ta. Outlining his approach to the incoming administration, Murphy said: “If it goes against our values, we’re going to fight to the death. If there’s an opportunity to find common ground, we’re going to seize it before anyone else.”
Progressives and activists say they are looking to Democratic leaders to lead the charge against President Trump’s most extreme proposals, especially on immigration.
“Trump may be re-elected, but he does not have the authority to intervene and tear our communities apart,” said United We Dream, a network of groups that advocate for young people brought to the United States. – said Action’s executive director, Greisa Martinez Rosas. America as a child known as the Dreamer.
She called on state and local officials, university presidents and business leaders to “use every tool at their disposal” to resist President Trump’s mass deportation campaign, adding, “President Trump and his Cabinet There are many things we can do to ensure that action is taken.” Their plan was not successful. ”
State attorneys general are once again poised to play a pivotal role in reining in the incoming administration’s policy ambitions.
“The volume of litigation is truly extraordinary and at a new level since the first Trump administration,” said Paul Nollet, a political scientist at Marquette University in Wisconsin. “I fully expect that to continue in Trump 2.0.”
According to a database maintained by Nolet, there were 160 multi-state complaints filed against the Trump administration during his four years in office, twice the number filed against Barack Obama during his entire eight-year term as president. corresponds to
Many of the Democratic lawsuits, at least initially, were successful in delaying or repealing Trump administration policies and regulations, Nollette said. Attorneys general can also leverage state influence and economic power by entering into legal settlements with companies. Countries have used this approach in the past to “advance their own regulatory goals,” Nolet said, by forcing the auto industry to adopt stricter environmental regulations, for example.
In a proclamation calling for a special session next month, Newsom called on Congress to boost the state’s legal funding to challenge the Trump administration and protect California. Among their concerns, California Democrats cited civil rights, climate action, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, as well as President Trump’s threat to withhold disaster funding from the state and the loss of children brought to the country as children. He raised the possibility that the administration would abolish safeguards that protect illegal immigrants who have been brought into the country. From deportation.
President Trump used a mocking nickname for the Democratic governor on Truth Social, saying, “Governor Gavin Newcomb is trying to kill our beautiful California. He uses the words ‘Trump-proof’ to ‘Make California Great Again. ‘But I just won the election by a landslide.’
Democratic leaders in battleground states won by Trump are also coordinating their response, but not all are actively participating in the resistance movement.
“I don’t think that’s the most productive way to govern Arizona,” the state’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, told reporters this week, according to the Arizona Capitol Times. Hobbs, who could face a tough re-election battle in 2026, said he would “stand up against acts that harm our communities,” but he said he would “stand up against anything that harms our communities,” but he is not concerned about President Trump’s efforts to deport Dreamers or nationalize the Arizona National Guard. He declined to say how he would respond if this were to happen. About his mass deportation campaign.
According to Axios, the state’s Democratic Attorney General Chris Mays, who is also up for re-election in two years, has taken a harder line against President Trump, fighting “unconstitutional acts” and restricting access to abortion. I swore to protect. Mays said in an interview on MSNBC that he has “no intention” of dropping criminal charges against allies of the former president who tried to help Trump overturn Biden’s victory in the state.
Still, she insisted they had something in common. She urged President Trump to revive the bipartisan border agreement he previously derailed and urged the incoming administration to deploy more federal resources and personnel to stop fentanyl from entering the United States. I asked for it.
With Democrats locked out of power in Washington, the new “Indivisible Guide” manual, developed by former Democratic Congressional staffers after President Trump’s election in 2016 and recently revised to confront a new era of MAGA politics, is blue. It envisages a major role for the state.
“For the next two years, Democratic elected officials will be making daily choices about whether to stand up to MAGA or align with them,” Indivisible Guide said. “Your tireless and determined advocacy allows good people to know there is a movement behind them fighting back, and bad people to know they are on guard. ”
Establishing protections for out-of-state residents seeking access to abortion and gender-affirming care is an example of an action that blue state activists could ask their leaders to consider. It refuses to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement and has entered into regional agreements to protect environmental efforts, data privacy, and health care.
Mary Small, chief strategist at Indivisible, said Democratic leaders at all levels across the country, including those in purple and red states, can serve as a “backstop to protect democratic spaces.” said.
“The important thing is to be proactive and bold, to be innovative and to collaborate with each other,” she said. “I don’t think anyone needs to have all the answers right now, but you do need to have that intention and determination and not cower in anticipation of a more repressive federal government.”
