The transfer — a day after the previous president resoundingly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris within the presidential race — successfully reignited California’s resistance marketing campaign in opposition to conservative insurance policies that state Democratic leaders began in the course of the first Trump administration.
California’s transfer is a part of a rising dialogue amongst Democratic state officers throughout the nation looking for to guard insurance policies that face threats beneath Trump’s management. Different blue states are shifting rapidly to arrange sport plans and count on a extra sturdy battle this time round with a Republican-dominated Senate and presumably Home.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul mentioned she, Legal professional Normal Letitia James and their senior staffers plan to satisfy often to debate authorized methods to guard “key areas that are most likely to face threats from the Trump administration” equivalent to “reproductive rights, civil rights, immigration, gun safety, labor rights, LGBTQ rights and and our environmental justice.”
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, who as state legal professional common filed dozens of lawsuits in opposition to Trump throughout his first time period, mentioned they may “have to see if he makes good on what he promised and ran on in terms of Project 2025 or other things.”
Massachusetts Legal professional Normal Andrea Campbell mentioned she and different attorneys common are “absolutely clear-eyed that president-elect Trump has told us exactly what he intends to do as president.”
In Chicago, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker introduced comparable preparations.
In some states, together with Connecticut, officers are hoping to codify progressive insurance policies into legislation by way of the poll field, “but there are limits to what our ability is to do that,” Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon mentioned.
Trump’s marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Trump typically depicts California as representing all he sees improper in America. Democrats, which maintain each statewide workplace in California and have commanding margins within the Legislature and congressional delegation, outnumber registered Republicans by practically 2-to-1 statewide and Harris simply carried the state in her dropping presidential bid.
Trump known as the Democratic governor “New-scum” throughout a marketing campaign cease in Southern California final month and has relentlessly lambasted the Democratic stronghold and nation’s most populous state over its massive variety of immigrants within the U.S. illegally, its homeless inhabitants and its thicket of rules.
Trump additionally waded right into a water rights battle over the endangered delta smelt that has pitted environmentalists in opposition to farmers and threatened to withhold federal support to a state more and more beneath menace from wildfires.
In a speech Wednesday morning, Trump vowed to comply with by way of along with his marketing campaign promise of finishing up the mass deportation of immigrants with out authorized standing and prosecuting his political enemies.
State Legal professional Normal Rob Bonta mentioned his workplace spent the previous 12 months reviewing greater than 120 lawsuits the state filed throughout Trump’s first time period in preparation of recent federal actions.
“We learned a lot about former President Trump in his first term — he’s petty, vindictive, and will do what it takes to get his way no matter how dangerous the policy may be,” state Senate President Professional Tempore Mike McGuire mentioned in an announcement. “California has come too far and accomplished too much to simply surrender and accept his dystopian vision for America.”
The state was additionally the primary to mandate that every one new vehicles, pickup vehicles and SUVs offered in California be electrical, hydrogen-powered or plug-in hybrids by 2035 and provides state regulators the facility to penalize oil firms for making an excessive amount of cash. California additionally extends state-funded well being care to all low-income residents no matter their immigration standing.