Emboldened red states could advocate for rightwing reforms from steep tax cuts to slashes to education<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republican<\/a> state lawmakers and conservative leaders around the United States see Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s re-election as a mandate that will help them enact rightwing policies in Republican-run states across the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The policies include steep tax cuts, environmental legislation<\/a>, religion in schools and legislation concerning transgender medical care<\/a> and education<\/a>, among other hot-button social issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans will have trifecta control<\/a> \u2013 meaning both legislative bodies and the governorship in a state \u2013 in 23 states next year, while Democrats will only control the three entities in 15 states. The other states have divided government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cArkansans went very favorably for President Trump, and I think Arkansans feel very similarly about President Trump as they do\u201d Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders<\/a>, said Ryan Rose, a Republican state representative in Arkansas<\/a>, where his party has the trifecta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat will only empower our state to continue forward with more conservative policies, putting more money back in the pockets of hard-working Arkansans with tax cuts and supporting Arkansas<\/a> conservative family values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While that federal and state control could allow Republicans<\/a> to advance their top priorities, leaders of progressive groups point to other election outcomes \u2013 such as some red states supporting abortion rights \u2013 as evidence that even if people voted for Trump, that does not necessarily mean they support what opponents describe as extreme proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And they remain optimistic that they will prevail against such measures in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are in a moment right now where the incoming administration\u201d won \u201cby distancing themselves from these very policies that it now seems that they are seeking to accelerate\u201d, said Skye Perryman<\/a>, president of Democracy Forward, a liberal legal group that includes more than 800 lawyers and has filed legal challenges to Republican regulations and administrative actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perryman added: \u201cWe are laser-focused on protecting the American people and on ensuring that people in this country have the tools to make their voices heard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Top priorities among Republican state lawmakers appear to concern curriculum and school choice, meaning allowing parents to use public money to send their children to private schools, which can be religious or more socially conservative than public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Twenty-eighty states have at least one school choice program, such as education savings accounts, which provide public per-pupil funds to families with children who don\u2019t attend public schools, according to Education Week.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s platform stated that he wanted \u201cto protect the God-given right of every parent to be the steward of their children\u2019s education\u201d and when nominating Linda McMahon<\/a> to serve as education secretary, he stated<\/a> that she would \u201cfight tirelessly to expand \u2018Choice\u2019 to every state in America\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Arkansas, Sanders recently released a proposal<\/a> that would increase funding for such \u201ceducation freedom accounts\u201d by $90m to $187m and set aside $90m in surplus funding as a reserve for the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since Trump\u2019s election, Republicans in states such as Ohio have also introduced legislation<\/a> labeled as a \u201cParents\u2019 Bill of Rights\u201d that would mandate that public school officials notify parents of a student\u2019s mental, emotional or physical health, including \u201cany request by a student to identify as a gender that does not align with the student\u2019s biological sex\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Critics of such legislation have described it as<\/a> \u201can endangerment to all LGBTQ+ youth\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this month, there were 129 pending anti-LGBTQ+ state bills, including proposals to prohibit doctors from prescribing to minors puberty-blocking drugs or gender reassignment surgery, according to<\/a> the ACLU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a rightwing advocacy group, said that the Department of Education under Trump would help states \u201cstop gender ideology being taught in our nation\u2019s schools\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has also promised to eliminate<\/a> the Biden administration\u2019s efforts to address the climate crisis. The Montana state senator Tom McGillvray said he hoped Trump would mitigate or rescind recent federal environmental regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need Washington to tell us how to manage our environment,\u201d said McGillvray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, the courts could provide a way for people to combat Trump administration<\/a> policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Montana supreme court upheld a ruling<\/a> last monththat stated that 16 young plaintiffs had a \u201cconstitutional right to a clean and healthful environment\u201d and invalidated a law that barred regulators from considering the effects of greenhouse gas emissions when permitting fossil fuel projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democracy Forward plans to use the courts to \u201cchallenge policies that are harmful and in instances where the incoming administration may be inclined to ignore the law\u201d, said Perryman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And even though Trump captured the popular vote and electoral college, voters in three states, including Montana, supported the Republican-passed ballot measures to protect abortion rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A majority of people also oppose Project 2025<\/a>, a policy playbook from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank, according<\/a> to polls<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the election, Trump distanced himself<\/a> from the plan, which calls for withholding federal funding from states that share data on abortion<\/a> that occurred within their borders and for dismantling<\/a> the Department of Education, among a long list of other ideas. But Trump has since appointed people connected<\/a> to Project 2025, including Tom Homan<\/a> to serve as \u201cborder czar\u201d and Brendan Carr<\/a> to serve as chair of the Federal Communications Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome of the same architects behind the extreme federal policies also work at the state level,\u201d said Perryman. \u201cWe are obviously monitoring the bills that are being filed in various sessions and ensuring that people at the state and local level can make their voices heard, including through using the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n