AENN

By TRÂN NGUYỄN Updated 3:21 PM PST, November 7, 2024Share

Follow AP’s coverage of the election and what happens next.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fierce critic of former President Donald Trump, on Thursday called for lawmakers to convene a special session ahead of another Trump presidency to safeguard the state’s progressive policies. Meanwhile, attorneys general in blue states across the country announced they were also gearing up for a legal fight.

The move — a day after the former president resoundingly defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race — effectively reignited California’s resistance campaign against conservative policies that state Democratic leaders started during the first Trump administration.

“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we won’t sit idle,” Newsom, who reportedly has ambitions on the national stage, said in a statement.

Newsom’s office told The Associated Press that the governor and lawmakers are ready to “Trump-proof” California’s state laws. He called on the Legislature to meet in December and give the attorney general’s office more funding to fight federal challenges but did not give specifics.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office spent the past year reviewing more than 120 lawsuits the state filed during Trump’s first term in preparation for new federal actions.

More election coverage

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will spend part of week in DC as he tries to Trump-proof state policies

A guide to key figures in Donald Trump’s orbit

Round 2 in the Trump-vs-Mexico matchup looks ominous for Mexico

Bonta said to look at the votes in California: “We rejected him. We rejected his values. We rejected his agenda.”

He said his office has been working with Democratic attorneys general across the nation in anticipation of Trump winning to prepare game plans. The states could face a more robust battle this time around with a Republican-dominated Senate and possibly House.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul said she, Attorney General Letitia James and their senior staffers plan to meet regularly to discuss legal strategies to protect “key areas that are most likely to face threats from the Trump administration” such as “reproductive rights, civil rights, immigration, gun safety, labor rights, LGBTQ rights and our environmental justice.”

Massachusetts Gov. 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.”

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat who has just been elected governor, said he was especially worried about Trump’s recent comments suggesting the military should be used domestically against “the enemy from within.”

“It’s deeply un-American,” he said.

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.

Even in losing California, Trump appeared on track to surpass his 2020 record of more than 6 million votes in the state, at the time more than any GOP candidate before him. Jessica Millan Patterson, who heads the state Republican Party, said in a statement that “Out-of-touch California Democrats continue to prove their commitment to moving California away from the mainstream and down a destructive path.”