SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fierce critic of former President Donald Trump, on Thursday called on lawmakers to call a special session next month to approve the state’s progressive policies ahead of another Trump presidency as attorney general In blue states across the country, they said they were preparing to do the same.
The move – a day after the former president soundly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race – effectively reignited California’s resistance campaign against the conservative policies that Democratic leaders began during the first Trump administration.
“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we will not stand idle,” Newsom, who is said to have ambitions on the national stage, said in a statement. “California has faced this challenge before and we know how to respond. We are ready to fight in court, and we will do whatever it takes to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to succeed.”
Newsom’s office told The Associated Press that the governor and lawmakers are ready to make California’s state laws “Trump-proof.” In his announcement Thursday, he called on the Legislature to provide the attorney general’s office with more resources to combat federal challenges when it meets in December.
Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office spent the past year reviewing more than 120 lawsuits filed by the state during Trump’s first term in preparation for recent federal actions. Bonta said the governor called the special session to determine the resources the state would need to combat any interference by Trump in its policies, without providing further details about exactly what the plans would entail.
He said his office had been working with Democratic attorneys general across the country in anticipation of a Trump victory. Referring to the votes in California, he said: “We rejected it. We rejected his values. We rejected his agenda.”
California’s move is part of a growing discussion among Democratic state officials across the country as they seek to protect policies that face threats under Trump’s leadership. Other blue states are quickly preparing game plans, anticipating a tougher battle this time with a Republican-dominated Senate and possibly a House of Representatives.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she, Attorney General Letitia James and their senior staff plan to meet regularly to discuss legal strategies to protect “key areas most likely to face a threat from the Trump administration,” such as ” reproductive rights, civil rights, immigration, gun safety, labor rights, LGBTQ rights and our environmental justice.”
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, who filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump during his first term as attorney general, said it will be “see if he delivers on what he promised and delivered on Project 2025 or other things.” .
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat who was just elected governor, said he was particularly concerned about Trump’s recent comments that the military should be used domestically against “the enemy within.”
“It’s deeply un-American,” he said.
In some states, including Connecticut, officials hope to codify progressive policies into law, “but there are limits to our ability to do that,” said Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon.
California’s Republican lawmakers called Newsom’s announcement a “political ploy.”
“The only ‘problem’ it will solve is Gavin Newsom’s insecurity that not enough people are paying attention to him,” state Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said in a statement about the special session.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
After Trump’s victory, Newsom vowed to work with the president-elect, but added: “Make no mistake, we want to stand with states across our country to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law.”
Trump often portrays California as a symbol of everything he believes is wrong with America. Democrats, who hold all of California’s statewide offices and enjoy immense leads in the Legislature and congressional delegation, outnumber registered Republicans statewide by nearly two to one, and Harris handily won the state in her losing presidential bid.
Trump called the Democratic governor a “new scum” during a campaign stop in Southern California last month and has relentlessly criticized the Democratic stronghold and the country’s most populous state for its immense number of illegal immigrants, its homeless population and its thicket of regulations.
Trump also became embroiled in a water rights battle over the endangered Delta smelt, pitting environmentalists against farmers and threatening to withhold federal aid to a state increasingly at risk of wildfires.
In a speech Wednesday morning, Trump vowed to keep his campaign promise to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and prosecute his political enemies.
In his speech Thursday, California’s attorney general reassured the state’s immigrant population, the largest in the country.
“I can promise the undocumented immigrant community in California that I and my team have been thinking about you and the harm that could be caused by the Trump Administration 2.0 for months. “We will do everything in our power and the fullest “Use the authority of our office to defend and protect you,” Bonta said.
Over the past two decades, state attorneys general have increasingly taken on the role of challenging the policies of the federal executive branch — usually when they come from a president of the opposing party.
During Trump’s first presidency, Democratic attorneys general jointly banned Democrats from filing lawsuits on immigration, Trump’s travel ban on residents of Muslim countries, the environment, internet regulation and other issues.
The challenges typically have mixed results. But Trump has a possible advantage this time. He has been aggressive in nominating conservative jurists to federal courts at all levels, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
Newsom has described California as a haven for people in other states seeking abortions. The state has passed dozens of laws to protect abortion access, including providing $20 million in taxpayer money to lend a hand patients in other states travel to California for an abortion. Newsom also leads a coalition of 20 Democratic governors launched in 2023 to strengthen abortion access.
The state was also the first to require that all recent cars, pickup trucks and SUVs sold in California be electric, hydrogen-powered or plug-in hybrids by 2035, giving state regulators the power to penalize oil companies if they do they make too much money. California is also expanding federally funded health care to all low-income residents, regardless of immigration status.
“We learned a lot about former President Trump in his first term – he is petty, vindictive and will do anything to get his way, no matter how dangerous the politics,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire state, in a statement. “California has come too far and accomplished too much to simply give up and accept its dystopian vision for America.”
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Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York; Steve LeBlanc in Boston; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco; Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia; and Eugene Johnson in Seattle contributed to the report.
