SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fierce critic of former President Donald Trump, called on lawmakers Thursday to convene a special session later this year to review the state’s progressive policies on the area of climate change, reproductive rights and reproductive rights. immigration ahead of a new Trump presidency.
The move — a day after the former president convincingly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race — essentially fuels California’s campaign of resistance to the conservative policies 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.”
Newsom and lawmakers say they 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.
California’s move is part of a growing discussion among Democratic state officials seeking to protect policies that are under threat under Trump’s leadership. Other blue states are also quickly preparing game plans for another Trump presidency, expecting a fiercer fight this time with a Republican-dominated Senate and possibly the House of Representatives.
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 .”
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.
Calling the Democratic governor “New Scum” last month during a campaign stop in Southern California, Trump has relentlessly criticized the Democratic stronghold and the nation’s most populous state for the large number of illegal immigrants in the U.S., its homeless population and its maze 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,” 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.
Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office last year reviewed more than 120 state lawsuits filed during Trump’s first term in preparation for new federal actions.
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.
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Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, and Steve LeBlanc in Boston contributed to the report.
