Democrats Draw Up an Entirely New Anti-Trump Battle Plan

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Democrats Draw Up an Entirely New Anti-Trump Battle Plan

The party’s early preparations to oppose the next Trump administration are heavily focused on legal fights and consolidating state power, rather than marching in the streets.

Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, said his office had been preparing for Donald J. Trump’s potential return to power for more than a year.Credit...Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

By Reid J. Epstein and Lisa Lerer

Reid J. Epstein and Lisa Lerer have covered the Democratic Party’s attempts to oppose Donald Trump since he first won election in 2016.

Nov. 16, 2024, 5:01 a.m. ET

Locked out of power next year, Democrats are hatching plans to oppose President-elect Donald J. Trump that look nothing like the liberal “resistance” of 2017.

Gone are the pink knit caps and homemade signs from the huge protest that convulsed blue America that year, as exhausted liberals seem more inclined to tune out Mr. Trump than fight.

Washington is far different, too. The Republicans who stymied some of Mr. Trump’s first-term agenda are now dead, retired or Democrats. And the Supreme Court, with three justices appointed by the former president, has proved how far it will go in bending to his will.

As they face this tough political landscape, Democratic officials, activists and ambitious politicians are seeking to build their second wave of opposition to Mr. Trump from the places that they still control: deep-blue states.

Democrats envision flexing their power in these states to partly block the Trump administration’s policies — for example, by refusing to enforce immigration laws — and to push forward their vision of governance by passing state laws enshrining abortion rights, funding paid leave and putting in place a laundry list of other party priorities.

Some of the planning in blue states began in 2023 as a potential backstop if Mr. Trump won, according to multiple Democrats involved in different efforts. The preparations were largely kept quiet to avoid projecting public doubts about Democrats’ ability to win the election.

“States in our system have a lot of power — we’re entrusted with protecting people, and we’re going to do it,” said Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, who said his office had been preparing for Mr. Trump’s potential return to power for more than a year. “They can expect that we’re going to show up every single time when they try to run over the American people.”

The Democratic effort will rely on the work of hundreds of lawyers, who are being recruited to combat Trump administration policies on a range of Democratic priorities. Already, advocacy groups have begun workshopping cases and recruiting potential plaintiffs to challenge expected regulations, laws and administrative actions starting on Day 1.

Democracy Forward, a legal group that formed after Mr. Trump won in 2016, has built a multimillion-dollar war chest and marshaled more than 800 lawyers to press a full-throated legal response across a wide range of issues.

“No one was running to the courthouse on a range of things that matter to people in communities,” said Skye Perryman, the group’s chief executive, describing the opposition effort during Mr. Trump’s first term. “Resistance this time is a lot more about collective power building. It’s using the law and using litigation.”

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Democracy Forward, led by Skye Perryman, has marshaled more than 800 lawyers to press a full-throated legal response across a wide range of issues.Credit...Shuran Huang for The New York Times

Staff members hired by the party have also begun digging up dirt on Mr. Trump’s future administration. Researchers at the Democratic National Committee and American Bridge, a prominent Democratic super PAC, are compiling dossiers on the earliest picks for his White House and cabinet.

At the federal level, Democrats will have little ability to pass laws or stop Mr. Trump’s agenda. So much of the focus will be on the party’s 23 governors, many of whom are jockeying to be the face of the next anti-Trump movement.

Disagreements over how — and whether — to take on Mr. Trump have already emerged. Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and JB Pritzker of Illinois have taken a more confrontational stance, mobilizing their Democratic-controlled legislatures to gird their states against the future Trump administration.

But others, including Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, have signaled that they will seek areas where they can work with the new administration. Mr. Murphy called Mr. Trump to congratulate him on his victory and plans to attend his inauguration in January. (Mr. Newsom tried to speak with the president-elect this past week, but the call was not returned, he said on his podcast, Politickin’.)

“It’s a combination of fight where you need to fight, and that includes everything — legal action, a bullhorn, peaceful protests and civil disobedience,” Mr. Murphy said of his approach. “And then at the same time, we can’t close off the opportunity to find common ground.”

The Democratic fight for influence

Some of the first maneuvering by top Democrats began this past week, when Mr. Pritzker and Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado announced the formation of a group called Governors Safeguarding Democracy. Its unveiling followed several days of behind-the-scenes drama, as several fellow Democratic governors declined to join the group, at least for now.

A draft news release listed six other governors as members of the coalition led by Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Polis. But four of them — Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania — declined to join, according to people briefed on the discussions. Govs. Tony Evers of Wisconsin and Josh Green of Hawaii were also named on the draft news release, but neither has yet agreed to join the group.

Alex Gough, a spokesman for Mr. Pritzker, said that the group had been working with 20 governors’ offices but that “not all of these governors wish to be named publicly at this time for understandable reasons, including the potential threats states are facing.”

Mr. Murphy said he had been approached to join the Pritzker group, as well, but declined, explaining that he was focused on New Jersey until his term ends in early 2026. He said he had also declined to run to lead the Democratic National Committee after holding a series of conversations about entering that race, which is expected to have its first candidates enter by early next week.

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Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey has signaled that he will seek areas where he can work with the new administration.Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York Times

The election to lead the party, expected to be held sometime in early 2025, will be an insular contest decided by the 447 members of the D.N.C. Those who have had conversations with party members and prominent Democrats about running include Ken Martin, the Minnesota Democratic chairman; Ben Wikler, the Wisconsin Democratic chairman; Michael Blake, a former New York State Assembly member; Mitch Landrieu, a former Biden administration official who also served as mayor of New Orleans; and Stacey Abrams, who twice ran for governor of Georgia.

“My last 10 days or so have been people asking me, am I running for D.N.C. chair or am I running for New York City mayor?” said Mr. Blake, who was a party vice chair during Mr. Trump’s first term and lost races for Congress and New York City’s public advocate. “I am seriously considering both.”

Joshua Karp, a spokesman for Ms. Abrams, said she had “made no calls and has told people she is not interested in seeking the post.”

Resistance rooted in the law

Much of the party’s new approach remains unsettled. Starting on Sunday night, liberal advocacy organizations will present their strategies at the fall meeting of the Democracy Alliance, a private gathering of some of the party’s richest donors.

The panels range from sweeping subjects — “Making Meaning and Meeting the Moment: Resistance and Reorienting” and “It’s Time to Resist: The Fight Against Project 2025” — to more focused discussions about abortion rights, immigration, racial justice, taxes, countering disinformation and other issues, according to a draft agenda.

Presenters include leaders of prominent left-leaning groups; Democratic politicians like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Representative Ro Khanna of California; and philanthropists like Alex Soros.

Democrats have a growing belief that their efforts must extend beyond the political sphere, trying to go on offense in a splintered media environment where conservatives have amassed more influence. One new liberal dark-money group began prospecting for donors with a pitch that it would unearth unflattering revelations about the Murdoch family and Elon Musk — both pro-Trump media magnates.

The group, called the Two Plus Two Coalition, plans to “target the hidden sources of disinformation and expose them for what they are,” according to a donor prospectus being circulated this past week. The group asked donors for a minimum investment of $1 million, and was aiming for an annual budget of $10 million to $15 million.

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Rick Wilson, a former Republican operative who is now a senior adviser to the Two Plus Two Coalition, said his organization would operate as an opposition research firm but with a military-grade intelligence-gathering operation that went far beyond the document vetting typical of a political campaign.Credit...Brad Barket/Getty Images for Fast Company

The group’s senior adviser, Rick Wilson, a former Republican operative who was a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, said in an interview on Thursday that his organization would operate as an opposition research firm but with a military-grade intelligence-gathering operation that went far beyond the document vetting typical of a political campaign.

“A lot of people in the center and on the left have for a long time sort of bemoaned Fox, but they haven’t done anything about it,” Mr. Wilson said.

Trying to emulate Republicans

In some ways, the new Democratic strategy resembles what Republicans have done during President Biden’s administration.

Over the last four years, Republican governors and state legislatures pursued an agenda that flouted the administration by taking steps to restrict abortion rights, limit transgender rights, ban diversity programs and pursue other conservative priorities. Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas transported migrants to liberal cities thousands of miles away, forcing immigration to the forefront in places far from the border and helping the Trump campaign capitalize on the issue.

Some Democrats hope to similarly leverage their state power for national impact. In January, two Democratic strategists — Arkadi Gerney and Sarah Knight — circulated a private memo arguing that the party’s top donors should invest more heavily in transforming Democratic-controlled states into new centers of liberal influence.

A second Trump administration, they worried, would be met with far less outrage from the public and more fatigue from Democratic voters. Those factors could leave liberal states playing an even more crucial role, they argued.

Since then, they have been working to better coordinate policy across liberal states, and are urging ambitious Democrats to focus on local efforts.

“Emerging policy experts and political organizers who want to make a difference — don’t go to Washington,” Mr. Gerney said in an interview this past week. “Join the people in Albany, Springfield and Lansing who are working to not only defend against overreach by Trump, but to aggressively make blue and purple states great places to work, live and raise families.”

Kenneth P. Vogel contributed reporting from Washington.

Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. More about Reid J. Epstein

Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades. More about Lisa Lerer