SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers gathered at the state Capitol on Monday to hammer out a plan to protect the state from President-elect Donald Trump’s conservative policies, including his promise to repeal environmental protections and launch mass evictions.
The goal of the special legislative session called by Gov. Gavin Newsom is to establish a $25 million fund for legal challenges to federal policies that the governor says could “harm the state,” including civil rights, access to abortion and immigration.
But with Trump returning to the presidency, the politics of leading the resistance are trickier as Democrats evaluate how they lost the White House and wonder why support for Trump in California has increased since the 2020 election, despite his criminal convictions, his lies, and his role in the 2020 election. insurrection at the US Capitol following his defeat by President Biden.
Legislative leaders — under pressure to prove that the special session is more than just political theater, as some Republicans claim — have tried to balance their concerns about a second Trump term with state issues important to their constituents , such as the rising cost of living.
As Parliament welcomed 35 new members – including a record number of women – Democrats, who retain a supermajority, said legal preparation was a necessary precaution. During Trump’s first term as president, California filed more than 100 lawsuits against the federal government, securing protections for undocumented people who came to the United States as children and securing rules on air quality.
“If Washington, D.C. refuses to address climate change in the next four years, take my word for it that California will continue to lead the way as we always have,” Senate Pro Tem Mike said Monday McGuire (D-Healdsburg). “Because here in the Golden State, we fight to uplift every person, no matter where they come from, no matter the color of their skin, who you are, who you love, and how you identify.”
As lawmakers introduced bills strengthening abortion rights and further affirming California as the antithesis of Trump, California leaders were more tempered in their messaging and emphasized bipartisan pocketbook issues .
“Our voters don’t feel like the state of California is working for them,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) said Monday, pointing to last month’s elections, in which Voters rejected progressive-backed measures and repealed prison reform laws.
Rivas reduced the limit of bills allowed to be introduced and requested that all proposals focus on “affordability and prosperity.”
The speaker pledged to continue to protect Californians from excessive federal action against their rights.
“If LGBTQ people are attacked, if hardworking immigrants are targeted, if women’s reproductive freedom is threatened, we will fight back with everything we have,” Rivas said.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said that if the Legislature approves the legal fund, it will be used to pay attorneys and other personnel ready to immediately take legal action if Trump does something the state deems illegal.
The proposed $25 million is “a start,” Bonta said.
“If we have no recourse to pursue because the Trump administration is acting legally, we will not use it. We don’t expect that, given what he’s done in the past — what he said he would do,” Bonta said at a press conference in Sacramento on Monday. “Under Trump 2.0, we believe we will have to use everything. »
California has been here before. Eight years ago, the legislative session began with a similar theme, as Democrats rushed to counter Trump’s policies, introducing bills to protect immigrants from threats of deportation, similar to the proposals current administration.
“Californians don’t need healing. We have to fight,” then-Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) said in December 2016, calling Trump’s appointees “white nationalist, anti-Semitic” who “have no business being in the House.” White “.
Republicans have attempted to block approval of the special session that began Monday, describing it as an out-of-touch strategy and urging Democrats to avoid panic and resist pressure on the federal government.
“The people of California have sent a clear message during this election season. They are done with the majority party’s failure to solve the most important problems we face and they are ready to return to common-sense, solutions-focused government,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R-Santee). “We’re thrilled to see Californians stand up to the Democratic machine and declare, ‘Enough is enough.’
Even Newsom — a still-willed Trump foe — shifted his message after Republicans won the White House, Senate and House in November’s elections. In a statement Monday, the governor said the special session was intended to “set this state up for success” regardless of who is in the White House.
“We will work with the new administration and we want President Trump to succeed in serving all Americans,” Newsom said. “But when there are excesses, when lives are threatened, when rights and freedoms are targeted, we will act. »
Rep. Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) introduced a bill Monday that would eliminate taxes on car seats and baby wipes — a bill he said Republicans are “pro-family” should support. He said members of his party need to “slow down” as they promise to lead the resistance to Trump and focus on policy that helps people rather than arguments.
“I think it’s different this time. No one is growing their base to attack Trump right now,” Bryan said. “You can do real policy work and not just play politics with it. »
