Do you reside in a pink state, a blue state, or one the place Republicans and Democrats share energy?
Your reply would possibly present one of the best indicator of what to anticipate out of your governor and state lawmakers as President-elect Donald Trump takes workplace and legislatures convene.
In lots of instances, political celebration identification has come to outline public coverage, percolating from the nation’s capital all the way down to the 50 statehouses.
Many Republican state officers are aligning with Trump’s insurance policies by pledging to assist him crack down on unlawful immigration, for instance. Some Democratic state officers are mounting a resistance motion, searching for methods to protect their states from potential federal insurance policies limiting abortion and transgender rights, amongst different issues. Some prominent Democratic governors, in the meantime, have taken a extra conciliatory method in an effort to forge a working relationship with the brand new administration.
Here is a take a look at what to anticipate in some coverage areas:
Immigration
Governors and lawmakers in pink states are lining up behind Trump’s pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and deport many who’re dwelling within the U.S. illegally. A joint assertion from 26 Republican governors stated they “stand able to make the most of each software at our disposal — whether or not by means of state legislation enforcement or the Nationwide Guard — to help President Trump on this very important mission.”
Republican lawmakers in a rising variety of states are proposing to offer native legislation officers the ability to arrest individuals who entered the nation illegally, mirroring a recent Texas law that has been positioned on maintain whereas courts take into account whether or not it unconstitutionally usurps federal authority. One invoice in Missouri would supply a $1,000 reward to informants who tip off authorities about individuals within the nation illegally and permit non-public bounty hunters to search out and detain them.
Governors in some blue states are taking a wait-and-see method to Trump’s immigration plans, prepared to cooperate on deporting individuals who commit crimes however not in utilizing the Nationwide Guard for widespread roundups of immigrants dwelling within the U.S. illegally.
Different Democratic-led jurisdictions are bracing for a showdown. The California Legislature has convened a special session to erect shields in opposition to Trump’s insurance policies on immigration and different points.
Abortion
Most U.S. abortions are carried out utilizing medication quite than by means of surgical procedures, and that’s the place the current abortion fight is concentrated.
At the very least 4 states — Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire and Tennessee — have payments launched aimed toward banning tablets. None take the identical method as Louisiana, which final yr labeled the medication as controlled dangerous substances.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a New York physician, claiming she wrongly prescribed through telehealth and despatched tablets to a Texas girl, despite the fact that a New York legislation goals to guard such prescriptions.
And the Republican attorneys common of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri are in court docket attempting to roll again federal approvals of one of many tablets normally utilized in abortion.
Schooling
A number of efforts to broaden using public cash to pay for youths to attend non-public faculty suffered high-profile defeats within the November elections, together with in Nebraska, Kentucky and Colorado.
However Trump’s victory is seen as a boon for such efforts, which lately have exploded in reputation. A dozen states, nearly all pink, have applications permitting any pupil to use for presidency funding for personal schooling, together with at spiritual colleges.
With Trump in workplace, states might see extra incentives resembling block grants or tax advantages to undertake or broaden fashions like vouchers, which subsidize non-public faculty tuition for households. Texas, for instance, is predicted to see momentum on the college alternative entrance, with numerous voucher proponents successful seats within the Legislature.
Many conservative states are also pushing to deliver Christianity into public Ok-12 schooling by means of strikes resembling requiring colleges to show the Bible and put up the Ten Commandments. Trump has promised to advertise prayer and Bible studying in colleges, with present courts extra amenable to faith within the public sphere, together with colleges.
In Texas, officers in November permitted a curriculum that intertwines language arts with biblical lessons and the state schooling superintendent in Oklahoma has sought to require Bible-related classes.
Range
Efforts to finish variety, fairness and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives are anticipated to broaden in Republican-led states beneath Trump, who has vowed to eliminate perceived “wokeness” in schooling. Extra larger schooling establishments could be part of the ranks of these already dismantling variety workplaces in states resembling Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas.
Attorneys common and legislatures in pink states are also prone to put strain on the non-public sector to pare again DEI initiatives. A Tennessee legislation gives one mannequin, forbidding monetary establishments from contemplating a buyer’s participation in “variety, fairness and inclusion coaching.”
Transgender points
Republican lawmakers are anticipated to maintain pushing for restrictions on the rights of transgender individuals, significantly transgender minors.
Greater than 30 such payments have been proposed in Texas. Though Texas and different states have bans on gender-affirming take care of transgender minors, there are calls to go additional, resembling barring Medicaid and different state-funded authorities applications from spending on gender-affirming take care of individuals of any age.
In his marketing campaign final yr, Trump leaned into attacks on transgender rights, suggesting a looming shift in federal coverage.
The way forward for among the measures might relaxation on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling anticipated this yr on whether or not Tennessee had the correct to ban gender-affirming take care of transgender minors.
Most Republican-controlled states have already got legal guidelines banning or limiting gender-affirming care for minors and participation in ladies’s and ladies sports activities for transgender ladies and ladies. A number of additionally dictate which faculty restrooms transgender individuals could use.
Public well being
With an incoming presidential administration that has indicated fluoride and vaccines is perhaps in its crosshairs, lawmakers in a number of states have filed payments that might finish fluoridation applications and additional limit COVID-19 mandates.
Well being and Human Providers Secretary-nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a lawyer with no medical or public well being levels, has referred to as fluoride an “industrial waste” and stated in a Nov. 2 post on X that the Trump administration would “advise all U.S. water programs” to cease placing fluoride within the water. The addition of low ranges of fluoride to ingesting water has lengthy been thought-about one of many best public well being achievements of the final century as a result of it prevents tooth decay.
Arkansas lawmakers have filed payments to repeal a statewide fluoridation program and permit native public water programs to carry elections so residents can resolve whether to put fluoride in the water. Montana additionally has a proposed invoice to ” ban the use of fluoride,” although the complete textual content of the invoice isn’t obtainable but.
Vaccination laws and mandates are nonetheless in play in state governments, too. Alabama could take into account altering its vaccination legal guidelines to require parental consent for any vaccine to be given to a minor age 14 or older; at the moment, kids that age can resolve whether or not they need medical companies. Wyoming has a invoice that might impose a civil penalty of as much as $5,000 on a enterprise or entity that will get state or federal cash if discovered to discriminate based on whether someone is wearing a mask, has had a COVID-19 vaccination or has been examined for COVID-19.
It’s not clear whether or not these or different payments will get consideration.
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Related Press writers Jesse Bedayn, Erica Hunzinger, Andrew DeMillo and Alia Wong contributed to this report.
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