Democratic governors are signaling their willingness to defy the new Trump administration, vowing to protect freedoms in their states and to wage legal and political battle if the president-elect follows through with controversial proposals.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said the Golden State is “ready to fight” and called a special section of the state Legislature after Trump’s win.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) promised that if “you come for my people, you come through me.”
In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey (D) pledged her state’s law enforcement will not assist the Trump administration if it goes through with mass deportation plans.
The messages, some of which come from possible 2028 contenders, harken back to the first Trump term, when big Democratic states repeatedly sparred with the White House. They also suggest a long campaign as ambitious Democrats tout their willingness to take on Trump at home and across the country.
Another four years of Trump in power are likely to see Democrats “resisting in every way possible, to throw sand in the gears at every opportunity,” said Jesse Rhodes, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “And with Congress likely controlled by Republicans, that’s going to fall on the shoulders of Democratic governors,” he said.
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