Blue states, like California, have spent the hours since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory Tuesday night strategizing how to protect themselves against federal GOP policies. Utah’s newly elected legislative leaders say they are similarly planning for 2025, but instead plans to use Trump’s campaign promise to scale back federal agencies to build bulwarks against how a future Washington might affect 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 has a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

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

“Not Congress,” Schultz continued, “this is from the unelected bureaucrats coming from inside Washington, DC, through the (President Joe) Biden administration, and we’re going to do everything we can to push back on these things and try to cement them from happening again in the future.”

Republicans in the Utah House of Representatives chose not to make changes in leadership. In the Utah Senate, however, GOP lawmakers selected 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 Sen. Kirk Cullimore will move up from majority assistant whip to majority leader. At a news conference Thursday night, he insisted the contest was “nothing but cordial” and that the changes were not due to political differences — rather, lawmakers looking to take advantage of “limited opportunities to serve in the state legislature.”

Cullimore said the incoming Trump administration has “signaled that there may be some efforts to restructure the federal government, and I think that’s an opportunity for us to say take a little bit more of the lead.”

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

Leadership in both chambers said they hope to take advantage of a Trump White House by increasing the state’s control over public lands and turning to fossil fuels for energy — a move they say will lower energy costs and improve its availability for technologies like artificial intelligence.

Last session, legislators passed the Utah Constitutional Sovereignty Act — a law that allows themselves to choose which federal laws to follow and which to ignore. They used that law during the summer to vote to ignore new Title IX rules which extended protections to transgender people.

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

Utah Senate

Senate President: Late. Stuart Adams, Layton

Senate Majority Leader: Late. Kirk Cullimore, Draper

Senate Majority Whip: Late. Chris Wilson, Logan

Senate Assistant Whip: Late. Mike McKell, Spanish Fork

Utah House of Representatives

Speaker of the House: Rope. Mike Schultz, Hooper

House Majority Leader: Rep. Jefferson Moss, Saratoga Springs

Majority Whip: Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, Clearfield

Majority Assistant Whip: Rope. Casey Snider, Paradise