Democratic Governors Aren’t Coming Out Swinging Against Trump – Yet

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. ― Democratic governors and governors-elect assembled at the Beverly Hilton over the weekend for the Democratic Governors Association’s annual confab, just a month after Republican Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the presidential election.

With Republican control of Congress, these 23 Democratic executives ― many of whom were not present at the meeting ― will make up the last line of defense against Trump’s excesses. A number of these governors also represent the party’s most promising prospects to retake the White House in four years time.

But anyone who showed up at the DGA meeting looking for a defiant anti-Trump pep rally would come away disappointed. 

Speaking to reporters on Saturday afternoon, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D), chair of the DGA, and North Carolina Gov.-elect Josh Stein (D), emphasized their willingness to work with Trump where possible.

“I’ve already worked with the Trump administration,” said Kelly, recalling her collaboration with Trump administration officials during the COVID-19 pandemic. “So we’ll evaluate it as it comes to us, and we will always look for ways to work together.”

“If there are things that they push us to do that we think are wrong, illegal or anything like that, we’ll draw the line,” she continued.

When it comes to deporting undocumented immigrants, the area where Trump has promised the most immediate and far-reaching actions, it is not clear exactly where the “line” is for many governors.

Trump’s team has proposed mobilizing the national guard to assist with mass deportations. Kelly, who is one of the country’s most moderate Democratic governors, made clear she would neither authorize her state’s national guard, nor the Kansas state police, for that purpose.

For his part, Stein takes over a state where, in late November, Republican state lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that would require all local sheriffs to verify the immigration status of people in their jails and honor all requests from federal immigration authorities to detain those people. As a candidate, Stein chose not to weigh in on the bill.

Asked how he would handle Trump taking advantage of these powers, Stein noted that the law applied to people already in custody, suggesting it was less of a concern than other kinds of mass deportations.

“That’s a very different circumstance than going out there and rounding people up,” said Stein, whose 15-point victory over scandal-plagued Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson was a major Democratic triumph this cycle. 

“We don’t know what President Trump’s immigration plan is going to look like at the end of the day,” he continued. “He is a master of saying something and creating a great deal of noise, and then the reality may be different. So I’m going to wait to see exactly what it is he ultimately proposes.”

In an interview with HuffPost, Delaware Gov.-elect Matt Meyer (D) sounded similar notes, declining to preview how he would react to various scenarios in which Trump seeks to deport undocumented immigrants from the state en masse.

“‘Project 2025’ is a long document,” said Meyer, referring to a conservative think tank’s blueprint for a second Trump term. “We don’t know what in there they’re serious about and what they’re not.”

Meyer, a former middle school math teacher, instead said he is focused on improving his state’s public schools, which was the top issue in his election. He did note that Delaware’s economy, especially its agricultural industry, is heavily dependent on immigrant workers and that a sudden decrease in immigrant labor would spike food prices.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who vacated his post as DGA chair to serve as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate against Trump, was present at the meeting, but did not make himself available for an interview with HuffPost or address reporters as a group.

The comments by Kelly, Stein and Meyer are consistent with Democratic governors’ overall more cautious approach to a second Trump term. While some prominent Democratic executives are girding for battle, they are sometimes finding it hard to convince others to get on board.

Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom convened a special legislative session to allot additional funding for the state attorney general’s office, in anticipation of legal battles with the Trump administration. And shortly after Trump’s election, Democratic Govs. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Jared Polis of Colorado formed Governors Safeguarding Democracy, a group aimed at coordinating Democratic governors’ efforts to oppose Trump.

But Democratic governors have not exactly been flocking to join Pritzker and Polis’ group. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, whose state was second only to New York in its shift toward Trump, declined to join the group.

Stein and Meyer were noncommittal about it on Saturday. “We’re going to be a state that protects people and is on the front lines of protecting people,” said Meyer, citing the need to safeguard abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights. “If that means joining Gov. Pritzker’s group to do that, we’ll do that. If it means not doing that, and at times, partnering with the Trump administration, we’ll do that too.”

And Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), one of several Democrats vying to succeed Murphy in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race next year, said she was first and foremost running on making the Garden State more affordable.

“My vision of being the governor of New Jersey is not solely in relationship to what Trump’s doing,” she told HuffPost at the Beverly Hilton on Saturday. “That’s our mistake ― letting him become the sun that we revolve around.”

Tonally, Democratic governors’ message sounds a bit more tepid than it was in the aftermath of the 2016 election, when then-California Gov. Jerry Brown prepared his state for the “battle ahead.” There were just 15 Democratic governors when Trump took office, so many of the public statements on the matter came from members of Congress.

But even then, many Democratic elected officials held out the possibility of cooperation with Trump on select issues ― if only to hold him accountable when he failed to follow through on promises like infrastructure investment.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told The Washington Post at the time that he would fight Trump’s efforts to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and infringe on abortion rights. But Sanders said, “If he brings forward an infrastructure program, which is something I’ve advocated for years, along with many others — it creates millions of jobs — will I be supportive? Yeah.”

This time, while Democrats are at odds over exactly what went wrong in the election, there is broad consensus that too few voters believed Harris was fighting for their economic interests.

That may make jousting with Trump less appealing than reestablishing trust with voters by delivering policy results ― and of course, doing a better job communicating those results to voters.

“One way in which Democrats are struggling nationwide is that we’re not able to develop policies that produce outcomes that speak to Americans across the political spectrum whether urban, suburban, rural ― outcomes that deliver and are meaningful to families,” Meyer said.

“And we’ve not communicated well the delivery of” existing accomplishments like the bipartisan infrastructure law, he added.

What’s more, Democratic governors in key battleground states ― nearly all of whom steered clear of the press in Los Angeles ― often got where they are specifically because they managed to stay above the partisan fray in Washington, leaving open the question of how much state executives may want to delve into it now.

In gubernatorial elections, Stein said, “There just is a willingness on the part of voters to not turn off their partisan blinders, but to lower them, and have a little bit more willingness to evaluate candidates based on the candidate and their messaging,” rather than just based on party.