CNN
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Democratic governors and attorneys general are beginning to build Resistance 2.0, talking up tough and promising new laws and legal battles as they seek to protect their states from the conservative policies they expect from the president-elect. Donald Trump to be implemented.

And already, Trump is fighting back – a first glimpse of the legal, regulatory and political battles that now loom in 2025 and beyond.

The governor of California. Gavin Newsom on Thursday summoned state lawmakers to a special session later this year in an effort to protect the state’s progressive policies on issues including abortion rights and climate change from the new administration and Republicans who gained control of the U.S. Senate and could also hold a majority in the House of Representatives. . “The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack – and we will not stand idly by,” Newsom said in a statement.

In a Truth Social article Friday, Trump said Newsom — whom he called “Newscum” — was “trying to kill our country’s beautiful California.” He said homelessness and food prices were out of control in the state, and he would push for changes to the state’s election laws to require voter identification and proof of citizenship.

Newsom is far from the only Democratic governor preparing to take on Trump. In blue states like Illinois, Massachusetts and New York, officials are already pledging legal and political fights against the new Trump administration on issues including abortion rights, environmental regulations, gun control, immigration enforcement and much more.

The first moves come as the Democratic Party enters a period of soul-searching over how Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris across the map and what the path forward looks like for the party.

Everything is happening with an eye toward 2028. With a lame-duck president and a lost Senate majority, Democrats have no clear national leader. Ambitious governors who refused to challenge Harris’ rapid rise following President Joe Biden’s July exit from the 2024 race won’t have to rely on anyone in four years.

This presidential primary won’t start now – or anytime soon. But the second Trump era will offer Democratic officials an opportunity to demonstrate their own leadership while positioning themselves for possible future elections.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who said he was bracing for a series of potential Trump policies, pledged to protect women who go to Illinois for abortions and defend environmental regulations . He also said the state would take legal action if necessary to prohibit the withdrawal of federal grants from blue states that do not cooperate with Trump’s deportation efforts.

“You come for my people, you come through me,” Pritzker told reporters Thursday.

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters Wednesday that her state would not accept “an agenda from Washington that strips New Yorkers of the rights they have long enjoyed.” State Attorney General Letitia James told reporters she was not afraid of Trump and said in a statement she was “ready to fight back again.”

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, who 15 months ago declared a state of emergency over the influx of migrants into her state seeking shelter amid shortages of housing, said Thursday on MSNBC that the State police would “absolutely not” help Trump’s deportation efforts.

“Every tool in the toolbox will be used to protect our citizens, our residents and our states, and certainly to uphold democracy and the rule of law as fundamental principles,” she said.

Some Democratic governors, including those widely seen as potential 2028 presidential contenders, did not immediately take aim at the new Trump administration.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore emphasized that his state, neighboring the nation’s capital, and the federal government are “deeply intertwined” — and that the federal government is his state’s largest employer.

“We are prepared to push back against this new White House if necessary,” Moore said during a Cabinet meeting Friday. “But where we can find common ground, we will.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, co-chair of the Harris campaign, said in a statement Wednesday that she hopes Trump “will lead by trying to unite people, including those who did not vote for him or support him.”

“As we move forward, let us remember that we are a nation of good, kind people who have more in common than not,” she said. “Finally, let’s support the success of the new administration and continue to work together to move things forward.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement that he “will never back down in defending the freedoms I was elected to protect.” But he also said that “now that this election is over, it’s time to govern – to work together, to compromise and to get things done.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the losing Democratic vice presidential candidate, gave his first speech after returning home Friday afternoon.

He said Trump and his running mate, Vice President-elect JD Vance, campaigned on a pledge to leave decisions up to the states, and that he was “prepared to take them at their word for that.”

“But the minute they try to bring a hateful agenda into this state, I’m ready to stand up and fight for the way we do things here,” he said. “Minnesota has always been and always will be there to protect us from the storm.”

Walz specifically highlighted abortion rights, climate change, gun restrictions in schools and labor rights as areas where he said he would be “ready to defend the progress we have made here in Minnesota.”

Other Democratic governors were trying to make sense of Harris’ defeat — even as liberals gained through policy measures, such as Arizona voters’ overturning a 15-year-old abortion ban weeks, Missouri passed ballot measures protecting abortion rights, raising the minimum wage and guaranteeing pay. sick leave and Kentucky’s rejection of a voucher program for private schools.

“I think the concept of common ground and common sense is what this country is looking for,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday on CNN.

Noting that he was re-elected last year by 5 percentage points and that Trump is coming off a 31-point victory, Beshear said Democrats would be wrong to think the party’s only problem in 2024 was its message – which he says amounts to “which suggests that we do all the right things, but we don’t talk about them in the right way.”

“What I think is perhaps more important is focus,” he said, adding that Democrats need to ensure the party focuses on issues that directly affect lives daily voters.

Harris closed her presidential campaign focusing largely on defending democracy and freedom, and portraying Trump — who fought to overturn the results of his 2020 defeat — as a threat to founding principles of the nation.

“It suggests that people are looking for a better life,” Beshear said, “and this election should be about convincing voters that that’s also what we’re focused on — that we’re going to spend 90 percent of our budget. our time on the issues that matter most to you, which are probably the least political issues out there, but the ones that impact people every day.

Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general and governor-elect, said Thursday on MSNBC that he was proud to see Democrats win a series of statewide races, even as Trump won the state’s votes. state electoral college.

He said Democrats need to “reassure people that you actually care about them and are going to work on the issues they care about.”

“Good ideas don’t belong in just one party,” he said. “People have the same interests, no matter who they are. »