The new year will usher in full Republican control of the federal government with an incoming Trump administration eager to implement the extremist policies outlined in Project 2025. That means Democratic state legislators will be at the forefront of efforts to combat the GOP’s dangerous agenda and protect the rights and freedoms of all Americans. And thanks to gains we’ve made over the last decade, state Democrats are better positioned than ever before for the fight ahead. Here are the top ten ways state Democrats will combat the MAGA agenda.
When Donald Trump took power in 2016, Democrats controlled only 29 state legislative chambers. In the eight years since then, the DLCC has been hard at work rallying the resources and support needed to win an additional 10 chamber majorities in states from Pennsylvania to Michigan to Colorado, giving Democrats the ability to craft and pass policy impacting the lives of 160 million Americans in blue and purple states. This past election, we stopped the red wave that swept the top of the ticket from hitting state legislatures, making Democratic majorities in the states more important than ever.
This year, the DLCC broke Republican supermajorities that threatened to undermine the veto power of Democratic governors. In North Carolina, Republicans had used their supermajority to force through dangerous anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ legislation – cruel policies that can now be blocked thanks to our recent victories. In Wisconsin, Republicans had spent over a decade using rigged district maps to keep themselves in power, despite consistently losing the popular vote. After helping to lead the fight for new fair maps, we were able to pick up 14 seats in the Wisconsin legislature, putting a supermajority out of reach for Republicans and putting us in a strong position to flip a chamber in 2026. Both of these state-level wins are critical to blocking the MAGA agenda in two of the country’s most important battlegrounds.
When Trump’s Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, they eviscerated federal protections for abortion access. Legislatures in every Republican-led state enacted laws to ban or restrict abortion, fueling the already record-high maternal mortality rate and causing hospitals in red states to close their maternity wards permanently. Meanwhile, every single Democratic trifecta has acted to protect abortion rights, with states like California and Maryland turning their states into safe havens for visiting patients who could be punished for traveling there to receive abortion care. State legislatures are now unequivocally the battlegrounds where our liberties are won and lost, making Democratic majorities more important than ever.
Project 2025 proposes “getting rid of” the federal government’s ability to combat climate change by eliminating pollution rules, dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and removing federal research on the crisis altogether. We don’t have time to wait for the next administration – which is why Democrats are making meaningful progress in the states now. When Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord and dismantled rules creating clean power generation during his first term, Democratic-led state legislatures sprung into action. And under Biden, state Democrats complemented the administration’s agenda by going beyond federal protections. In recent years, Democratic majorities in Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, and Nevada have passed landmark legislation to generate carbon-free energy on various timelines from 2040 to 2050, showing how important the balance of power in the states is for addressing the climate crisis.
Trump made it clear that he plans to go after blue states for policies that protect the environment, safeguard immigrant communities, and defend abortion access. So Democratic legislatures in states like California, New York, and Illinois are already working with Democratic governors and statewide elected officials to prepare for the adverse effects. In California, which represents the world’s fifth largest economy, legislators will “Trump-proof” their state with a $25 million legal fund to push back against the new administration’s illegal actions that threaten federal funding.
We already have a dozen special elections on our radar in the early months of 2025, including two key January special elections in Virginia. We’re also gearing up for the 2025/2026 cycle, which provides a critical opportunity to strengthen Democratic state power under the Trump administration. Our initial targets include states where Democrats have a path to victory if we secure the resources and infrastructure to compete, including Virginia, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Arizona, and Wisconsin. The future we can win is clear: securing the DLCC’s battlegrounds by the end of the decade would put Democrats in charge of more than half the country’s economy and more than half the population, providing a powerful foundation for the Democratic agenda in the states.
State legislatures are the foundation of our democracy, determining how people participate and the security of our elections. While Democrats have made it a priority to strengthen voting rights, Trump has retaken power on a message of election denialism with a cadre of MAGA enablers at his back. Trump’s allies in the states have spread conspiracies about our elections, undermined access to the ballot, and even participated in the January 6 insurrection. Democratic legislators are on alert, ready to call out the right-wing extremists who try to erode our democracy and are doing everything they can to continue expanding access to voting.
State Democrats have been hard at work trying to put money back in the pockets of working families. Democratic legislatures recently passed no-cost school meal programs in several states, saving families as much as $850 per child. Numerous blue states also passed billions in historic tax cuts and measures to rapidly expand affordable housing and tenants’ rights. In places like Colorado, Michigan, and New Mexico, state legislatures expanded job programs, equipping residents with skills that lead to good-paying jobs. And state Democrats have taken bold steps to create good-paying jobs that boost the growth of clean energy and manufacturing opportunities. These are the kinds of policy initiatives Democratic state legislators will continue seeking out and advancing, even as the Trump administration threatens economic stability with tariffs and mass deportations.
Over the past decade, the diversity of our Democratic caucuses has grown to better represent the communities they serve. With over 700 Black legislators serving in statehouses, we’ve achieved an unprecedented number of Black speakers, including Pennsylvania’s Speaker Joanna McClinton and Maine’s Sen. Rachel Talbot-Ross. A historic number of LGBTQ+ legislators are now serving in office, largely driven by the Democratic gains over the past decade. At a time when Republicans have passed an unprecedented number of bills attacking the LGBTQ+ community, leaders like Virginia Senator Danica Roem and Montana Representative Zooey Zephyr matter more than ever. The number of women in Democratic caucuses has also increased. Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico have made history by reaching gender parity in their legislatures. These leaders are the future face of the Democratic Party that will be leading the resistance against the incoming Trump Administration.
If Trump tries to eradicate the Department of Education, state Democrats are ready to fight back and invest in public schools. They’ve long been on the frontlines combatting the GOP’s crusade to attack teachers, rewrite history, and siphon off public education funding. From banning books to demonizing LGBTQ+ kids, MAGA extremists have politicized our local classrooms, contributing to a historic exodus of school teachers and staff across the county and putting the education of the next generation at risk. In stark contrast, Democrats in state legislatures are raising teacher pay, expanding teacher benefits, and giving teachers the autonomy to support their students. Electing Democrats to statehouses is now the only way to ensure schools remain fully funded, the civil rights and liberties of students are protected, and teachers can do their jobs.
The next four years will not be easy, but the path forward is clear. Ours was the only level of the ballot where Democrats were able to overcome the red wave that swept through the White House and Congress. We emerged with hard-won victories in battleground states. And now, we are preparing for one of the biggest fights of our lifetime under a second Trump presidency. State legislatures are the only level of the ballot where Democratic power is on the rise. You can be a part of our continued success as we fight to combat the MAGA agenda. Join our movement today.
To learn more about how the DLCC was able to come out on top after such a tough election cycle, read our date-driven 2024 Impact Report here.
