ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — They warned about him. Now they will have to work with him.
A handful of prominent Democratic governors are quickly adjusting their approach to President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office, hoping not to antagonize him and ensure they will have a working relationship with his new administration.
They find themselves in a precarious position: They must tread carefully while balancing their party’s desire to take premature and often combative positions against Trump’s agenda.
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“It’s a combination of fighting like hell when your values are attacked or when your innocent communities or innocent people are attacked. And on the other hand, you’re also trying to find common ground on things that we could agree on,” New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Phil Murphy said in an interview with The Associated Press.
New York’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, is walking a similar tightrope, promising to push back on Trump on potential anti-reproductive rights policies while also appearing hopeful that she and the Republican can work together.
Hochul, who criticized Trump during a speech at the Democratic National Convention and was a prominent campaign surrogate for Democrats this year, has said she and Trump spoke extensively after his election victory and found common ground.
“There are areas where we can work together, like infrastructure where we rely on federal money, and he seems to share my priorities, but I’m also going to stand up for the protection of rights, reproductive rights and other rights,” she said at a news conference .
When Hochul was asked this week whether, as governor, she would consider pardoning Trump in his criminal conviction for hush money in New York, Hochul notably did not shut down the question. “There is a pardon process in New York State. It’s long. It requires a number of elements. One of them is remorse,” she said, laughing quickly.
A New York jury earlier this year convicted Trump on all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.
Other Democrats have certainly taken a more combative stance.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fierce Trump critic, called lawmakers back to work this month to provide more money for the attorney general’s office so it can begin an expected legal battle against the Trump administration. Newsom’s goal, as he put it, is to “Trump-proof” California’s progressive state laws.
Shortly after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Colorado Governor Jared Polis formed a group called Governors Safeguarding Democracy to “strengthen democratic institutions in the states and ensure that the rule of law applies to all serves people,” according to the group’s website. .
Still, Polis has engaged in a balancing act in his relationship with Trump. He has expressed excitement over Trump’s choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, and said he hoped Kennedy would take charge of “big pharma and corporate ag.”
In Massachusetts, Democratic Gov. Maura Healey has taken a slightly less confrontational stance toward Trump than she did four years ago when she was the state’s attorney general. At the time, Healey initiated or joined dozens of lawsuits against Trump on everything from immigration policy to health care and environmental issues.
Now as governor of a state that Harris won easily, but where Trump received more than 35% of the vote, Healey sounded more moderate in her criticism.
“I think I’ve talked quite a bit about Donald Trump and my feelings about him,” Healey told reporters after Trump’s victory. “We have to see if he delivers on what he promised and followed through in terms of Project 2025 or other things,” she said, referring to a far-right policy plan.
Healey has indicated that state police will not help enforce violations of federal immigration law — a key Trump priority — but has been less clear on whether she would ban the National Guard from detaining people in the country illegally.
As co-chair of Harris’ presidential campaign, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer repeatedly warned of the dangers of a second Trump presidency. He described him as “deranged” and stated that his re-election would mean that “we have failed as a country.”
But following Trump’s victory, the second-term governor has largely stayed out of the spotlight and said little about how she will tackle some of his policy proposals, such as mass deportations.
“I know some of my colleagues have laid out some pretty aggressive strategies,” Whitmer told reporters days after the election. “As I think about what a Trump administration will mean for our work, I try to focus on where we can find some shared priorities.”
Those close to Whitmer describe her approach as a wait-and-see strategy, with hopes of working with the newly elected president on areas of shared interest such as economic development.
“We have worked with the Trump administration before and we will figure out how to work with a Trump administration in the last two years of my term,” Whitmer said.
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Associated Press writers Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Jesse Bedayn in Denver; Steve LeBlanc in Boston and Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan contributed to this report.
