The governor of America’s most populous state says he will convene a special session of its legislature to protect state laws from Donald Trump.
California’s Gavin Newsom, who was once the favourite to become Kamala Harris’s running mate, said Trump’s victory threatened the heavily Democrat state’s values.
The state – where 39 million people live – has given Harris a 17-point lead over Trump with 60% of ballots tallied, and last voted for a Republican president in 1988.
“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack – and we won’t sit idle,” said Newsom.
The governor expected Trump to pursue “unconstitutional and unlawful federal policies” that would harm Californians or conflict with state law in areas like reproductive health, climate change and immigration.
When they meet on 2 December, Californian politicians should consider increasing funding to the state’s justice department so it can challenge such policies in court, he said.
In Trump’s term between 2017 and 2021, California filed more than 120 lawsuits challenging his administration’s policies, said Newsom.
Newsom’s office told the Associated Press that the governor and politicians are ready to “Trump-proof” California’s state laws.
Other blue states are moving quickly to prepare game plans.
In New York, governor Kathy Hochul said she, senior staffers and the attorney general plan to meet regularly to discuss legal strategies to protect “reproductive rights, civil rights, immigration, gun safety, labor rights, LGBTQ rights and our environmental justice”.
In some states, including Connecticut, officials are hoping to codify progressive policies into law, “but there are limits to what our ability is to do that,” Connecticut comptroller Sean Scanlon said.
Massachusetts governor Maura Healey, who as state attorney general filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump during his first term, said they will “have to see if he makes good on what he promised and ran on in terms of Project 2025 or other things.”
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