International Courant
Governors are scrambling to determine the simplest approach to answer the seismic adjustments unleashed within the opening weeks of the Trump administration.
The essential calculus is evident: Democrats are trying to find methods to thwart the White Home’s most sweeping actions, whereas Republicans are determined to point out they’re absolutely on board with the MAGA agenda.
However beneath that crude dynamic, the deliberations taking place in state capitals are way more nuanced and politically fraught.
Democrats are cautious of merely mounting a scorched-earth resistance to President Donald Trump’s insurance policies given the GOP’s sweeping victories on Election Day. That’s very true on immigration, the place the president’s hard-line ways have resonated even with voters in deep blue swaths of the nation.
Republicans, in the meantime, should navigate their very own political tightrope in responding to the administration’s efforts to slash federal spending. That’s significantly difficult close to the huge packages enacted in the course of the Biden administration that Trump has vowed to unwind — however which have disproportionately benefited pink states.
These calculations are shifting each day — with authorized fights creating much more uncertainty — as state executives face the hardest finances situations since earlier than the pandemic led to large pots of federal money swelling state coffers. Governors’ potential to traverse this uneven terrain will play a giant function in figuring out which ones emerge as nationwide political figures heading into 2028.
As the connection between the federal authorities and state capitals will get upended, POLITICO on Thursday is convening six state leaders for its 2025 Governors Summit, a sequence of one-on-one interviews on the sidelines of the Nationwide Governors Affiliation assembly in Washington.
The gathering will function a few of the nation’s most influential state executives answering questions from a few of POLITICO’s prime reporters and editors. The lineup contains Democrats Jared Polis of Colorado and Andy Beshear of Kentucky, and Republican Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma. This system begins at 8 a.m. EST.
To border these conversations, we’ve assembled a listing of probably the most pressing political and coverage questions governors — and, by extension, the nation — face in 2025.
1. How ought to Democratic governors, with a watch on 2028, work with Trump — or not?
It’s a raging debate amongst Democrats in Washington and throughout the nation: how a lot to cooperate with Trump — and the way a lot to withstand?
For a celebration nonetheless sorting via the wreckage of its 2024 losses, it’s nonetheless an open query. However for Democratic governors, lots of whom have a watch on 2028, it’s an much more pressing political balancing act. They’re underneath stress from the occasion’s progressive base to withstand Trump at each flip, whereas additionally providing a optimistic imaginative and prescient for the long run that’s not centered solely on attacking the president.
On the identical time, these Democratic governors should discover methods to work with Trump on the subject of federal spending, particularly after pure disasters. Look no additional than California Gov. Gavin Newsom greeting Trump on the tarmac after the devastating Los Angeles wildfires final month.
So, how do they stroll that political tightrope?
This isn’t restricted to the Democratic governors. Each events are going through open presidential primaries in 2028, so GOP governors could also be in search of their very own methods of standing out. Proper now, nevertheless, there’s little proof that Republicans wish to put distance between themselves and Trump. For instance, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp lately advised POLITICO that the federal government “can stand a bit of right-sizing,” when requested about 1,300 Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention workers, primarily based in Atlanta, who have been fired.
However how lengthy does that line maintain? (Elena Schneider)
2. What function, if any, do governors need to play in navigating a brand new period of commerce struggle?
Trump’s tariff threats and protectionist ideology have pushed a few of America’s closest buying and selling relationships to the brink — and disrupted state economies within the course of. Trump’s crackdown on commerce with Canada, alone, has forged a shadow over the states: Michigan leaders worry layoffs within the auto sector, New York’s energy provide might be imperiled, and Beshear of Kentucky has warned that Canadian retaliation might injury the liquor trade.
So, what’s the duty of a governor on this second? How a lot can a state chief work round Trump’s commerce insurance policies — or brace their state’s economic system for affect? Ought to governors be constructing bridges to international nations, even at the price of undermining federal coverage? Or interesting on to the White Home for assist, even on the danger of angering Trump or crossing their very own occasion?
In the course of the first Trump administration, governors in each events stepped up their worldwide journey and financial growth efforts, successfully launching a brand new, sub-federal type of diplomacy geared toward offsetting protectionism within the White Home. However Trump is shifting sooner and extra aggressively along with his insurance policies this time, with the arrogance of a extra emphatic electoral mandate. Can governors sustain? (Alex Burns)
3. How ought to governors navigate abortion points that stretch throughout state strains?
The autumn of Roe v. Wade was speculated to ship abortion again to the states. However greater than two years later, so many cross-border conflicts are flaring up that assertions from the Supreme Courtroom’s conservative majority and Trump that every state needs to be allowed to resolve its personal insurance policies are being strained to the breaking level.
Louisiana and Texas are trying to prosecute a New York physician for prescribing abortion tablets through telemedicine to sufferers in these states. Idaho and Tennessee have vowed to go after anybody who assists a minor in acquiring an abortion out-of-state. Idaho, Kansas and Missouri are additionally arguing in a Texas court docket that federal guidelines permitting abortion tablets to be prescribed on-line and shipped by mail violate their sovereignty. And Alabama medical teams and activists are locked in a authorized battle with their lawyer normal over what data, if any, they’ll present to sufferers about terminating a being pregnant outdoors the state.
The nation has been a patchwork for abortion entry for many years, however these divisions are solely getting deeper, and neither aspect within the abortion struggle is happy with the present scenario.
How a lot federalism and state-level experimentation needs to be allowed within the abortion house, and what baseline protections needs to be assured nationwide by Washington? How involved are governors that insurance policies limiting the motion of individuals or medicines throughout state strains might have repercussions past abortion? With the Trump administration rolling again its enforcement of the FACE Act, the 1994 federal regulation criminalizing the obstruction of abortion clinics, will governors push for state-level protections? (Alice Miranda Ollstein)
4. How will states cooperate with — or try to thwart — Trump’s immigration insurance policies?
Failure to go sweeping immigration adjustments in polarized Washington has led to state governments taking over their very own insurance policies. Blue state governors, together with New York’s Kathy Hochul, face federal lawsuits over permitting undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, whereas pink state governors dispatched Nationwide Guard troops to the southern border in the course of the Biden administration.
However Trump’s November victory and subsequent push to hold out an aggressive deportation coverage has scrambled conventional alliances.
Stitt, the Oklahoma Republican, blocked his state’s prime schooling official from accumulating the immigration standing of public faculty youngsters. Democrats, together with Hochul and Polis of Colorado, are supportive of deporting undocumented immigrants who commit violent crimes.
And the Trump Justice Division’s choice to drop New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case, as he aligns himself with the administration’s immigration czar, has intensified calls from fellow Democrats for him to step down. The Adams saga highlights the extraordinary steps Trump is prepared to take to push native and state governments to enact his immigration plans.
What sources are governors prepared to supply Trump to probably deport tens of millions of individuals? What would be the affect on state economies and employment? How will essential, Republican-leaning sectors like agriculture soak up the lack of staff? (Nick Reisman)
5. As Trump downsizes Washington, do Republican governors have a line he can’t cross?
Trump’s slashing of the federal authorities on the hand of Elon Musk and his Division of Authorities Effectivity is certain to have instant trickle-down results on the states, which closely depend on federal funding to maintain the lights on and federal workers to supply crucial companies and experience.
State and federal authorities capabilities are so carefully entwined {that a} shuttering of federal businesses stands to rework the each day lives of People, from the place they go to highschool to what meals will get placed on the desk.
The Trump administration has already laid off hundreds of federal staff throughout businesses, from the Training Division to the Forest Service to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. The cuts are anticipated to escalate in coming weeks and months as Musk and his allies work with surgical precision to downsize authorities.
Due to this fact, the query for GOP governors, whose enthusiasm for DOGE’s mission has prompted some to create their very own copycats, is: Can DOGE go too far? What wouldn’t it take for them to face up for his or her state’s financial pursuits and demand that DOGE again off? For Democratic governors, within the absence of congressional pushback to Musk, how do they intend to battle a dramatic reshaping of Washington?
6. What function ought to governors play on the daybreak of synthetic intelligence in state authorities?
Lawmakers have spent the previous couple of years attempting to know the revolutionary implications of synthetic intelligence programs whereas creating steering on state authorities use. They nonetheless have a protracted technique to go.
What they’ve found thus far is that there’s nice promise, many dangers and no simple solutions. Whereas AI has the potential to rework authorities operations throughout the state company spectrum, the perils are equally eye-opening. For all of the efficiencies to be gained within the supply of companies — in crucial areas reminiscent of schooling, well being care, regulation enforcement and transportation — there’s additionally the prospect of privateness violations and the inadvertent incorporation of bias or discrimination into algorithms. Latest elections, which have been buffeted by misleading, AI-generated content material, are already providing many officeholders an all-too-personal glimpse into a few of the darker purposes of synthetic intelligence.
What function ought to governors play on this pivotal second — the daybreak of synthetic intelligence in state authorities? What duty have they got to make sure moral rules are being developed and moral practices are being adopted? How can governors make sure that the federal government datasets powering this revolution are dependable and unbiased? What steps are being taken to protect in opposition to unexpected penalties?
All of those issues should be balanced in opposition to present fiscal and budgetary constraints, particularly the Trump administration’s efforts to slash federal spending. However what worth do you placed on the potential leap ahead in authorities effectivity, or on the huge alternatives for financial growth that can circulation from the adoption of AI applied sciences?
Selections made immediately will echo for many years to come back. (Charlie Mahtesian)
The 6 most pressing coverage questions we have now for America’s governors
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