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 – one day after the former president resoundingly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race has effectively revived California’s campaign of resistance to 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 sit idle,” said Newsom, who reportedly ambitions on the national stagesaid 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’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.
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 quickly preparing game plans and expect a more robust fight this time with a Republican-dominated Senate and possibly the 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 government threats.” Trump,” 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 follows through on his policies.” Project 2025 or other things.”
Massachusetts 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.”
In Chicago, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker announced similar preparations.
“Chaos, retaliation and disorder radiated from the White House when Donald Trump last occupied it,” Pritzker said at a news conference on Thursday. “Maybe this time it will be different. But if not, Illinois will remain a place of stability and competent governance.”
In some states, including Connecticut, officials hope to pass progressive policies into law through the ballot box, “but there are limits to what our ability to do that is,” said Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon.
Republican lawmakers in California called Newsom’s announcement a “political stunt.”
“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 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 often portrays California as representative of everything he sees wrong with America. Democrats, who hold every statewide office in California and command commanding margins in the legislative and congressional delegation, outnumber registered Republicans nearly 2-to-1 statewide, and Harris easily carried the state in her losing presidential bid.
Trump called the Democratic governor ‘new scum’ during a speech campaign stop in Southern California and has mercilessly 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 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.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office has been vetting the case over the past year more than 120 lawsuits the state filed during Trump’s first term in preparation for new federal actions.
“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 called California a shrine for people in other states who want abortions. The state is over dozens of laws to protect access to abortion, including setting aside $20 million in taxpayer money to help pay for patients in other states traveling to California to have an abortion. Nieuwsom too 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 too expands state-funded health care for all low-income residents, regardless of their immigration status.
Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to the report.