Beverly Hills, California — Democrats, who are about to be out of power in Washington as Republicans take control the three branches of government in January, see state capitols run by Democratic governors as the clearest path to resistance to President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.
The 16 governors and three governors-elect who gathered for their annual conference in Los Angeles last weekend welcomed the areas of compromise they can find with a trump White House, but they are already planning which decks to pick and considering how they will proceed.
Many of the governors in the conference were elected during the 2018 blue wave and have experience working with a Trump White House, especially during the COVID 19 pandemic
“We were able to find ways,” said Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who was one of those governors and serves as chairwoman of the Democratic Governors Association. “We’ve taken a very positive approach, and this time I think we’ll end up doing the same, because we really have no idea what’s going on. So we’ll evaluate it as it comes. .”
Politically, Democratic governors are also poised to fill a leadership void in the party in the coming years. Some potential 2028 presidential candidates have already been taking action.
In early December, California Governor Gavin Newsom began a special session to “safeguard California values” and bolster funding for legal defenses against potential federal actions on abortion, climate and immigration. A week after the election, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker partnered with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to start the “Governors Safeguarding Democracy” group, a think tank to create a “toolbox” of policies and responses to the Trump presidency.
“Whatever happens right now in Washington, the states are going to be the first line of defense,” said Democratic strategist Corey Platt, who was the DGA’s political director from 2013 to 2018. “There’s always a disconnect between voters and DC Folks are always mad at DC and yet the states have to make things work every day.”
Getty Images: Beshear (Photo by John Nacion/Getty Images); Lujan Grisham (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc); Kelly (Emily Curiel/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service)
There is no “perfect answer” for 2024 losses
Still on the minds of these governors were the party’s widespread losses in the 2024 election. The victory of North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein in the gubernatorial race was an electoral bright spot for Democrats in battleground state, where Vice President Kamala Harris lost by 3 points.
He said he didn’t “have a perfect answer” as to why he won (although his plagued by scandals The GOP challenger helped give him the edge) and Harris lost. Stein blamed a “tough national environment” but noted that his state often splits its ticket: In seven of the last nine presidential elections, North Carolina has voted a Republican for president and a Democrat for governor.
“People were definitely anxious financially, because they were seeing and hearing price increases,” he said. “Usually when you’re unhappy, you blame the party that controls the White House. Even if it’s not their fault nationally.”
New Jersey and Virginia, a potential opportunity for Democrats, have off-year gubernatorial elections in 2025. The 2026 map is wide, with 36 states electing governors. Several of those states, including Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire, could be the party’s targets. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear will assume the DGA presidency in 2026.
“Raising as many people as we can that are running on these areas of common sense and common ground that people care about the most will also create that critical mass for people to say that the Democratic Party is for working people,” Beshear said, the rare Democratic governor to win in a Republican state.
Platt, a former political director for the DGA, agreed that the 2026 gubernatorial races can help find “a good substitute for Democratic politics and Democratic ideas that has empathy, that people can understand.” He added that while a large number of governors will be “in this conversation” as the party recalibrates, it won’t be just them.
“We’re going to need leaders who can talk to real people,” he said. “It’s not about a poll. It’s not about a tactic. It’s real and authentic, and I’m excited to see how that happens.”
Courtney Alexander, communications director for the Republican Governors Association, opposes possible attempts by Democratic governors to counter the incoming Trump administration.
“The fact that Americans resoundingly rejected the Democratic Party’s agenda just a month ago, and yet Democrats continue to believe that their winning message is to fight an agenda of lower costs, more security and more freedom, it shows how completely disconnected the country is,” Alexander told CBS News.
Trump’s mass deportation plan
Some governors are laying the groundwork to counter Trump’s plans mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Trump said in an interview with NBC News “Meet the press“That deporting undocumented migrants who are convicted felons is the first priority in their mass deportation plan, but other non-violent undocumented migrants may also be subject to deportation.
“I think you have to do it, and it’s hard, it’s a very hard thing to do. But you have to have, you know, you have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally,” Trump said.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said that while she would accept federal aid to help locate and deport undocumented migrants who are convicted felons, there would be “zero way” she would cooperate with a broader deportation plan massive
He pointed to his control over the state police force, said he would not grant licenses for physical arrests and said providing private information to the federal government about undocumented residents would endanger transgender residents or women traveling from the states with abortion bans.
“I have no doubt that he will make every effort,” Lujan Grisham said of Trump and his mass deportation plan. “He’s going to have trouble running it. But I’m not Pollyanna about serious either [he is]…. I take him at his word, so I know what I have to do and what I will do. And let’s see if my strategy works as I think it will throughout the country.”
Kelly said he wouldn’t allow the Kansas National Guard to “perform this kind of service” and said it’s also not the job of the Kansas State Police.
“Certainly if there are things that we are pushed to do that we think are wrong or illegal, we will draw the line,” Kelly said.
Stein, who will take office as North Carolina’s governor in January, said the mass deportation of all undocumented migrants in his state would “create real economic challenges” but he has doubts about the likelihood that the deportations will be implemented massive
“[Trump] he is a master of saying something and creating a lot of noise, and then the reality can be different. I’ll wait to see exactly what he proposes,” Stein said.