Beverly Hills, California – Democrats, who are about to be locked out of Washington as Republicans take control all three branches administration in January sees state capitols led by Democratic governors as the clearest avenue of resistance to newly elected President Donald Trump’s second term.
The sixteen governors and three governors-elect who gathered last weekend for their annual conference in Los Angeles welcomed areas of compromise they can find with a Trump White House, but they are already planning which battles to pick and considering how to proceed.
Many of the governors at the conference were elected during the 2018 blue wave and have experience working with a Trump White House, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We found ways,” said Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, one of those governors and president of the Democratic Governors Association. “We’ve really approached it positively, and this time I think we’ll end up doing the same, because we actually have no idea what’s going to happen. So we’ll evaluate it as it comes our way.”
Politically, Democratic governors are also poised to fill a leadership vacuum in the party in the coming years. Some potential 2028 presidential candidates have already taken action.
In early December, California Governor Gavin Newsom launched a special session to “protect California values” and strengthen funding for legal defense against potential federal actions on abortion, climate and immigration. A week after the election, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker teamed up with Colorado Governor Jared Polis to create the group Governors Safeguarding Democracy, a think tank that will provide a “toolbox” of policies and responses to the presidency Trump had to create.
“Everything that happens in Washington right now, states are going to be the front lines of defense,” said Democratic strategist Corey Platt, who served as DGA political director from 2013 to 2018. “There is always a disconnect between voters and DC. always mad at DC, and yet states have to make sure everything works every day.”
Getty Images: Beshear (Photo by John Nacion/Getty Images); Lujan Grisham (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc); Kelly (Emily Curiel/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service)
No ‘perfect answer’ for 2024 losses
Still fresh in these governors’ minds were the party’s widespread losses in the 2024 elections. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s victory in the governor’s race was an electoral bright spot for Democrats in the battleground state, where Vice President Kamala Harris lost by three points.
He said he didn’t have a “perfect answer” as to why he won (although he did). scandal plagued GOP opponent helped give him an advantage) and Harris lost. Stein blamed a “difficult national climate” but noted that his state often divides its fortunes: In seven of the last nine presidential elections, North Carolina has voted for a Republican for president and a Democrat for governor.
“People were certainly worried economically because they saw and felt price increases,” he said. “When you’re unhappy, you usually blame the party that controls the White House. Even if it’s not their fault nationally.’
New Jersey and Virginia, a potential opportunity for Democrats, have off-year gubernatorial elections in 2025. The 2026 map is huge, with 36 states electing governors. Several of those states, such as Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire, could be targeted by the party. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear will take over as DGA chairman in 2026.
“Lifting up as many people as possible who work on the common sense and common ground that people care about most will also create that critical mass where people can say the Democratic Party is for working people,” said Beshear, the chairman of the Democratic Party. rare Democratic governor to win in a Republican state.
Platt, a former DGA political director, agreed that the 2026 gubernatorial races could help find “the good surrogate for democratic policies and ideas that have empathy and that people can understand.” He added that while a large number of governors will be “in that conversation” as the party recalibrates, it won’t be just them.
“We need leaders who can talk to real people,” he said. “It’s not happening because of a poll. It’s not happening because of a tactic. It’s real and authentic, and I’m curious to see how that happens.”
Courtney Alexander, communications director for the Republican Governors Association, opposes possible efforts by Democratic governors to thwart the incoming Trump administration.
“The fact that Americans decisively rejected the Democratic Party’s agenda just a month ago, and yet Democrats continue to believe that pushing against an agenda of lower costs, more security and more freedom is their winning message, shows how completely out of touch with the country,” Alexander told CBS News.
Trump’s mass deportation plan
Some governors are laying the groundwork to thwart Trump’s plans mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Trump said in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that deporting undocumented immigrants who are convicted criminals is the first priority in his mass deportation plan, but that other nonviolent undocumented migrants could also be removed.
“I think you have to do it, and it’s hard – it’s very hard to do. But you have to have rules, regulations and laws. They came in illegally,” Trump said.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said that while she would accept federal assistance to locate and deport undocumented immigrants who are convicted criminals, there is no way she would participate in a broader plan to mass deportation.
She noted that she has control over state police, said she would not issue permits for physical detention, and said providing private information to the federal government about undocumented residents, transgender residents or women traveling from states with abortion bans would endanger.
“I have no doubt he will do everything he can,” Lujan Grisham said of Trump and his mass deportation plan. ‘He will have difficulty executing that. But I’m also not Pollyanna about how serious it is [he is]….I take him at his word and that is why I know what I have to do and what I will do. And let’s see if my strategy will work across the country the way I think it will.”
Kelly said she would not allow the Kansas National Guard to “provide that type of service” and said it is not the job of the Kansas State Police either.
“If there are things they force us to do that we think are wrong or illegal, I’m sure we’ll draw the line,” Kelly said.
Stein, who takes office as governor of North Carolina in January, said the mass deportation of all undocumented immigrants in his state would “create real economic challenges,” but he doubted how likely the mass deportations would be carried out.
“[Trump] is a master at saying something and creating a lot of noise, and then reality can be different. I’m going to wait to see what exactly he ultimately proposes,” Stein said.
