CNN
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Democratic governors and attorneys general are beginning to build a resistance 2.0, talking tough and promising new laws and legal battles as they try to insulate their states from the conservative policies they expect the president-elect Donald Trump to implement.

And already Trump is firing back — an early preview of the consequential court, regulatory and political battles now looming in 2025 and beyond.

California Govt Gavin Newsom on Thursday, state lawmakers called a special session later this year in an effort to protect the state’s progressive policies on issues such as abortion rights and climate change from the incoming administration and Republicans who won control of the U.S. Senate and may also hold the majority in the U.S. House. . “The freedoms we cherish in California are under attack — and we will not sit idly by,” Newsom said in a statement.

In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump said Newsom — whom he called “Newscum” — is “trying to kill our nation’s beautiful California.” He said homelessness and food prices are out of control in the state, and said he will call for changes to state voting 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 vowing to launch legal and political battles against the incoming Trump administration on issues such as abortion rights, environmental regulations, gun control, immigration enforcement and more.

The early moves come as the Democratic Party enters a period of soul-searching over how Trump threw Vice President Kamala Harris off the map and what the party’s path forward looks like.

It all plays out with an eye on 2028. With a limping president and a lost Senate majority, Democrats have no clear national leader. Aspiring governors who declined to challenge Harris’ rapid ascension after President Joe Biden’s July exit from the 2024 race won’t have to defer to anyone for four years.

That presidential election won’t start now — or anytime soon. But the second Trump era will offer Democratic incumbents opportunities to showcase their own leadership as they position themselves for potential future runs.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who said he has been preparing for a range of potential Trump policies, pledged to protect women who travel to Illinois for abortions and defend environmental regulations. He also said the state would take legal action, if necessary, to prohibit the withholding 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 Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters Wednesday that her state will not “accept an agenda from Washington that takes away the rights that New Yorkers have long enjoyed.” The state’s attorney, Letitia James, told reporters she is not afraid of Trump and said in a statement that she is “ready to fight back again.”

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

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

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

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

“We are ready to push back on this new White House when necessary,” Moore said at a cabinet meeting on Friday. “But where we can find common ground, we will.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Harris campaign co-chair, said in a statement Wednesday she hopes Trump “leads by trying to unite people, including those who didn’t vote for him or don’t support him.”

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

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement that he “will never back down from standing up for the liberties 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 promise to leave decisions to the states and that he is “willing to take them at their word for it.”

“But the moment they try to get a hateful agenda in this state, I’m ready to stand up and fight for the way we do things here,” he said. “Minnesota always has and always will be there to provide shelter from the storm.”

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

Other Democratic governors struggled to understand how Harris had lost — even as liberals won on policy measures, such as Arizona voters overturning a 15-week abortion ban, Missouri’s passage of ballot measures protecting abortion rights, raising the minimum wage and guaranteeing paid sick leave, and Kentucky’s rejection of a private school program.

“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 won re-election last year by 5 percentage points and that Trump just won by 31 points there, Beshear said Democrats would be wrong to think the party’s only problem in 2024 was its message — which, he said, is tantamount to ” suggests we’re doing all the right things, but we’re not talking about it in the right way.”

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

Harris ended his presidential campaign largely focused on defending democracy and freedom, casting Trump — who fought to overturn the results of his 2020 loss — as a threat to the nation’s founding principles.

“What it shows is that people are looking for a better life,” Beshear said, “and this election needs to be focused on convincing voters that that’s what we’re also focused on — that we’re going to spend 90% of our time on the issues that mean the most to you, those are probably the least political issues out there, but the ones that affect people every day.”

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

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

“Good ideas don’t have a home in a party,” he said. “People have many of the same interests, no matter who they are.”