Blue states, like California, have spent hours since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory Tuesday night strategizing on how to guard against the Republican Party’s federal policies. Utah’s new legislative leaders say they’re planning the same way for 2025, but instead plan to use Trump’s campaign promise to shrink federal agencies to build bulwarks against how a future Washington can influence the deep-red state.

The Utah Legislature, after a vote by the Republican caucuses, will be led by the same two men next year: Senate President Stuart Adams, of Layton, and House Speaker Mike Schultz, of Hooper . The Republican Party holds a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

“It’s no secret Utah has felt pressure from the federal government,” Schultz told reporters Thursday, as the House majority announced the makeup of its leadership team.

“Not Congress,” Schultz continued, “this is coming from unelected bureaucrats coming from Washington, D.C., through the (President Joe) Biden administration, and we are going to do everything we can to push back against these things and try to prevent them from happening again in the future.

Republicans in the Utah House of Representatives opted not to make any leadership changes. In the Utah Senate, however, GOP lawmakers chose a new slate of leaders to work under Adams — ousting former Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, of Cedar City, and Majority Whip Ann Millner, of Ogden.

Draper Senator Kirk Cullimore will move from Deputy Majority Whip to Majority Leader. At a news conference Thursday night, he insisted the contest was “just cordial” and that the changes weren’t about political differences — but rather that lawmakers wanted to take advantage of “opportunities limited to serve in the State Legislature.

Cullimore said the new Trump administration has “signaled that there may be efforts to restructure the federal government, and I think this is an opportunity for us to get a little bit further ahead.”

He added: “If we can reverse some of what’s happened over the last few decades, maybe even 100 years, I think that’s a good thing. I think this gives us an opportunity to assert ourselves a little more and work with the administration to reshape that balance.

Leaders of both chambers said they hope to take advantage of the Trump White House by increasing state control of public lands and turning to fossil fuels for energy — a move they say would reduce the cost of energy and improve its availability for technologies like artificial intelligence. .

Last session, lawmakers passed the Utah Constitutional Sovereignty Act — a law giving itself permission to choose which federal laws to follow and which to ignore. They used this law over the summer to vote to ignore new Title IX rules which extended protections to transgender students.

The Democratic minority caucuses will hold leadership elections in the coming weeks.

Utah Senate

President of the Senate: Senator Stuart Adams, Layton

Senate Majority Leader: Senator Kirk Cullimore, Draper

Senate Majority Whip: Senator Chris Wilson, Logan

Deputy Senate Whip: Senator Mike McKell, Spanish Fork

Utah House of Representatives

President of the Chamber: Representative Mike Schultz, Hooper

Leader of the parliamentary majority: Representative Jefferson Moss, Saratoga Springs

Whip of the majority: Representative Karianne Lisonbee, Clearfield

Deputy Majority Whip: Representative Casey Snider, Paradise