Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Thursday that they were preparing to “protect California’s values” against the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, whose first term posed a slew of challenges to the Democratic policy agenda leaders in the United States. the state.
Newsom, a fierce critic of former President Donald Trump, on Thursday called on lawmakers to call a special session later this year to secure the state’s progressive policies on climate change, reproductive rights and immigration ahead of a new Trump presidency.
The move – one day after the former president He convincingly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race — has effectively revived California’s campaign of resistance to conservative policies that state Democratic leaders began during the first Trump administration.
“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we will not sit idle,” Newsom, who reportedly has ambitions on the national stage, said in a statement. “California has faced this challenge before and we know how to respond. We are prepared to fight in court and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive.”
Implementation of a plan to strengthen the state’s priorities, Newsom said, would begin on Dec. 2 with the launch of a special legislative session to address the issue, the second special session the governor announced this year. after an earlier attempt to bring lawmakers back to discuss high gas costs.
Newsom’s office told The Associated Press that the governor and lawmakers are ready to “Trump-proof” California state laws. His announcement Thursday called on the Legislature to give the attorney general’s office more funding to address federal challenges when they meet in December.
“No matter what the next administration has in store, California will continue to make progress,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “We’ve been through this before and we stand ready to defend your rights and protect California’s values.
Bonta said he would announce additional details at a news conference in San Francisco on Thursday morning.
California’s move is part of a growing discussion among Democratic state officials across the country trying to protect policies that are under threat under Trump’s leadership. Other blue states are also quickly preparing game plans, expecting a fiercer fight this time with a Republican-dominated Senate and possibly the House of Representatives.
How other blue states are responding
In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James said senior staffers plan to meet regularly to coordinate legal strategies.
“Our team will do whatever it takes to identify potential threats to these rights we hold dear in New York State and protect New Yorkers,” Hochul said at a news conference Wednesday.
Hochul said she has created a task force focused on developing policy responses in “key areas most likely to face threats from the Trump administration,” such as “reproductive rights, civil rights, immigration, gun safety, labor rights, LGBTQ rights and our environmental justice.”
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, who filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump as attorney general during his first term, said they “will have to see if he delivers on what he promised and followed through in terms of Project 2025 or other things.”
Attorney General Andrea Campbell said she and other attorneys general are “absolutely clear that President-elect Trump has told us exactly what he plans to do as president.”
After Trump’s victory, Newsom pledged to work with the newly elected president, but added: “Let there be no mistake: We intend to stand with states across our country to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law .”
Trump’s past battles with California
California was home to the so-called Trump resistance during his time in office, and Trump often portrays California as representative of everything he sees wrong with America.
Trump called the Democratic governor “new scum” during a campaign stop in Southern California last month and has relentlessly criticized the Democratic stronghold and the nation’s most populous state for the large number of illegal immigrants in the US, its homeless population and its thicket of regulations. .
Trump also waded into a water rights battle over the endangered delta smelt, which has pitted environmentalists against farmers and threatened to withhold federal aid from a state increasingly threatened by wildfires.
In a speech Wednesday morning, Trump vowed to make good on his campaign promise to carry out the mass deportation of immigrants without legal status and prosecute his political enemies.
Newsom and Democratic lawmakers said they are taking action now to protect the state’s policies that have made it a leader in the nation.
“We learned a lot about former President Trump during his first term — he is petty, vindictive, and will do whatever it takes to get his way no matter how dangerous the policy may be,” Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire said in a statement . . “California has come too far and accomplished too much to simply surrender and accept its dystopian vision for America.”
Newsom has called California a haven for people in other states seeking abortions. The state has passed dozens of laws to protect access to abortion, including setting aside $20 million in taxpayer money to help patients in other states pay to travel to California to have an abortion. Newsom also leads a coalition of 20 Democratic governors launched in 2023 to strengthen access to abortion.
The state was also the first to mandate that all new cars, pickup trucks and SUVs sold in California be electric, hydrogen-powered or plug-in hybrids by 2035, and gave state regulators the power to punish oil companies for earning from too much money. California is also expanding state-funded health care to all low-income residents, regardless of immigration status.
Bonta said his office has reviewed more than 120 lawsuits over the past year that the state filed during Trump’s first term in preparation for new federal actions.
Possible consequences for the 2028 elections
With Trump’s victory in the White House and California’s perceived role in leading the renewed resistance movement, Newsom is also sure to be on the short list of presidential considerations for 2028, said David McCuan, a professor of political science at Sonoma State University .
The governor, who will be ineligible to run for governor again when his term expires in 2027, will have the next two years to prove himself as an effective antidote to the Republican Party while at the same time establishing a working relationship with the newly elected president.
“He wants to be seen as a political revivalist, and that puts him center stage,” McCuan said.
