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President Trump tours the burned areas of Paradise, California, on Saturday, November 17 with state and city leaders, including Governor Jerry Brown and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom.

SACRAMENTO, California. – California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fierce critic of former President Donald Trump, on Thursday called on lawmakers to convene a special session later this year to safeguard the state’s progressive policies on climate change, reproductive rights and immigration before another Trump presidency.

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

“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack, and we will not stand idly by,” Newsom, who reportedly has ambitions on the national stage, said in a statement. “California has faced this challenge before and we know how to respond. We are prepared to fight in court and will do whatever it takes to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive.”

Newsom’s office told The Associated Press that the governor and lawmakers are willing to “Trump test” California state laws. His announcement Thursday called on the Legislature to give the attorney general’s office more funding to fight federal challenges when they convene in December.

California’s move is part of a growing discussion among Democratic state officials across the country seeking to protect policies that face threats under Trump’s leadership. Other Democratic states are also moving quickly to prepare game plans and expect a fiercer battle this time with a Senate and possibly House dominated by Republicans.

In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James said senior staff plan to meet regularly to coordinate legal strategies.

“Our team will do whatever we have to do to identify any potential threats to these rights that we hold dear in the state of New York and protect New Yorkers,” Hochul said at a news conference Wednesday.

Hochul said he has created a working group focused on developing policy responses to “key areas 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 the state’s attorney general filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump during his first term, said they “will have to see if he delivers on what he promised and delivered in terms of Project 2025 or other things.”

Attorney General Andrea Campbell said she and other attorneys general are “absolutely clear that President-elect Trump has told us exactly what he intends to do as president.”

In Chicago, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he is working with other governors to find ways to strengthen reproductive rights, among other things.

“Chaos, retaliation and disorder radiated from the White House the last time Donald Trump occupied it,” Pritzker said at a news conference Thursday. “Maybe this time it will be different. But if it isn’t, Illinois will continue to be a place of stability and competent governance.”

After Trump’s victory, Newsom pledged to work with the president-elect, but added: “Make no mistake, we intend to stand with states across our nation to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law.”

California was the home of Trump’s so-called resistance during his term, and Trump often describes California as representing everything he sees wrong with America.

Trump called the Democratic governor “new scum” during a campaign stop in southern California last month and has relentlessly attacked the Democratic stronghold and the most populous state in the country for its large number of illegal immigrants in the United States, its homeless population and its tangle of regulations.

Trump also waded into a water rights battle over the endangered delta smelt that has pitted environmentalists and farmers against each other and threatened to withhold federal aid to a state increasingly threatened by wildfires.

In a speech Wednesday morning, Trump promised to fulfill his campaign promise to carry out mass deportations of immigrants without legal status and prosecute his political enemies.

Democrats, who hold every state office in California and have dominant margins in the Legislature and the Congressional delegation, outnumber registered Republicans nearly 2 to 1 statewide, and Harris easily won the state in her presidential bid. loser

Newsom and Democratic lawmakers said they are acting now to protect the state’s policies that have made him the nation’s leader.

“We learned a lot about former President Trump in his first term: He is mean, vindictive and will do whatever it takes to get his way no matter how dangerous politics may be,” State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire said in a statement. . “California has come too far and achieved too much to simply give up and accept its dystopian vision of America.”

Newsom has called California a sanctuary for people in other states seeking abortions. The state has passed dozens of laws to protect access to abortion, including setting aside $20 million of taxpayer money to help pay for patients in other states travel to California to have an abortion. Newsom too lead a coalition of 20 Democratic governors launched in 2023 to strengthen access to abortion.

The state was also the first to require all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in California to be electric, hydrogen-powered or plug-in hybrids by 2035 and give state regulators the power to penalize oil companies for making too much. money. California too expands state-funded healthcare to all low-income residents regardless of immigration status.

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

With Trump’s victory in the White House and California’s assumed role as leader of the renewed resistance movement, Newsom will also be elevated to the short list for any 2028 presidential consideration, the Sonoma State University political science professor said. , David McCuan.

The governor, who will not be able to run for governor again when his term ends in January 2027, will have the next two years to prove that he is an effective Republican antidote while maintaining a working relationship with the president-elect.

“He wants to be seen as a political revitalizer, and that puts him front and center,” McCuan said.

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Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, Steve LeBlanc in Boston and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to the report.