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President Trump visits the burned areas of Paradise, California, on Saturday, November 17, with state and city leaders, including Governor Jerry Brown and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom.

SACRAMENTO, California. – 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 safeguard the state’s progressive policies on climate change, human rights reproductive and immigration issues before another Trump presidency.

The move — a day after the former president resoundingly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race — effectively reignited California’s resistance campaign against the conservative policies that the state’s Democratic leaders had launched during the first Trump administration.

“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack – and we will not stand idly by,” Newsom, who reportedly has 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 will do whatever is necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to prosper.”

Newsom’s office told The Associated Press that the governor and lawmakers are ready to “put California state laws to the test.” His announcement Thursday called on the Legislature to give the attorney general’s office more funds to combat federal challenges when they meet in December.

California’s decision comes amid a growing debate among Democratic state officials across the country seeking to protect policies under threat under Trump’s leadership. Other blue states are also quickly preparing game plans and this time expecting a fiercer battle with a Republican-dominated Senate and possibly House.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James said top officials plan to meet regularly to coordinate legal strategies.

“Our team will do everything we can to identify any possible threats to these rights we hold dear in New York State and protect New Yorkers,” Hochul said during a news conference Wednesday.

Hochul said she created a task force focused on developing policy responses to “key areas most likely to face threats 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 as state attorney general filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump during his first term, said they “will have to see if he keeps his promises and if he presented himself in terms of Project 2025 or other things.”

Attorney General Andrea Campbell said she and other attorneys general are “absolutely clear-eyed that President-elect Trump has told us exactly what he intends to do as president.”

In Chicago, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he was working with other governors to find ways to strengthen reproductive rights, among other things.

“Chaos, retaliation and disarray emanated from the White House the last time Donald Trump occupied it,” Pritzker said at a news conference Thursday. “Maybe this time will be different. But if not, Illinois will remain a place of stability and competent governance.”

After Trump’s victory, Newsom pledged to work with the president-elect, but added: “Make no mistake, we intend to stand with the states across our country to defend our Constitution and make respect the rule of law. »

California hosted the so-called Trump resistance during his time in office, and Trump often describes California as representing everything he sees wrong with America.

Trump called Democratic governor ‘new scum’ during a campaign stop in Southern California last month and relentlessly castigated the Democratic stronghold and the nation’s most populous state for its large number of illegal immigrants to the United States, its homeless population and its thicket of regulations.

Trump also waded into a water rights battle over the endangered delta smelt that pitted environmentalists against farmers and threatened to withhold federal aid to a state of increasingly threatened by forest fires.

In a speech Wednesday morning, Trump pledged to keep his campaign promise to carry out mass deportations of immigrants without legal status and to pursue his political enemies.

Democrats, who hold every statewide office in California and have wide margins in the legislature and congressional delegation, outnumber registered Republicans nearly 2-to-1 throughout the state. ‘state and Harris easily won the state in her losing presidential bid.

Newsom and Democratic lawmakers said they were acting now to protect the state’s policies that have made it a leader in the country.

“We learned a lot about former President Trump during his first term: he is petty, vindictive and will do what it takes to get what he wants, even if his policies are dangerous,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire in a statement. . “California has come too far and accomplished too much to simply give up and accept its dystopian vision of America.”

Newsom called California a sanctuary for people in other states seeking an abortion. The state has passed dozens of laws protect access to abortion, including setting aside $20 million in taxpayer money to help pay patients in other states travel to California to have an abortion. Newsom too leads a coalition of 20 Democratic governors launched in 2023 to strengthen access to abortion.

The state was also the first to require all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in California to be electric, hydrogen or plug-in hybrids by 2035 and to give state regulators the power to penalize oil companies who earn too much money. California too expands publicly funded health care to all low-income residents, regardless of immigration status.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office spent the last year reviewing more than 120 trials the state filed a request during Trump’s first term to prepare for further federal action.

With Trump’s victory in the White House and California’s role in leading the renewed resistance movement, Newsom is also likely to be elevated on the short list for any presidential consideration for 2028, said David McCuan, professor in political science from Sonoma State University.

The governor, who will no longer be eligible to run for governor again when his term ends in January 2027, will have the next two years to prove he is an effective antidote to the GOP while maintaining a working relationship with the president-elect.

“He wants to be seen as a political revivalist, and so that puts him front and center,” McCuan said.

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Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, Steve LeBlanc in Boston and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.