Washington's newly elected governor and top lawyer pledge to defend the state against Trump

Nov. 7—Abortion access. Mass deportations. Health care.

These are a few of myriad issues that many Washington voters have voiced worry about since former President Donald Trump won the race for the presidency of the United States.

On Thursday, current Washington attorney general and Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson and incoming Attorney General Nick Brown sought to calm the nerves of worried Washington residents, saying they're prepared to challenge the Trump administration if its policies threaten state laws.

"Months ago, my legal team began preparing for a second Trump administration," Ferguson said at a news conference in downtown Seattle. "We knew from our extensive experience during his first term that we would need to be prepared from day one if he was re-elected."

Ferguson, who won a landslide election Tuesday, said his legal team has closely reviewed Trump's stated plans when he takes office as well as Project 2025, a 900-page document from the Heritage Foundation that lays out a policy roadmap for the first year of Trump's presidency. In the face of intense criticism from Democrats, Trump distanced himself from the report during his presidential campaign.

Ferguson called the plans an "assault on reproductive rights, health care access, environmental protections, to name just a few," adding that he was "deeply concerned" by the potential implications of Trump's platform."

Fighting the Trump administration in court is one way Ferguson plans to limit the president's influence in Washington state, he said, noting that the state attorney general's office challenged 55 of Trump's policies between 2017 and 2021 in court and won the cases. The office lost three more similar cases.

"It's important to point out that we obviously worked with other states and Democratic (attorneys general) during those four years," Ferguson said. "Washington was, of course, extremely active ... we were the lead state on 36 cases."

Ferguson said the attorney general's office won many of those cases during the first Trump administration because many of the executive actions from the former president were rolled out in a "sloppy manner."

"One concern I have is that Donald Trump, I believe, and his administration may well be better-prepared on their end," he said .

Washington's elected officials can't fight against every decision a president makes, Ferguson warned.

"The president has a lot of power," he said. "That's the way our system works. That's appropriate. It is not unusual during Donald Trump's first term that I'd be stopped on the street by a Washingtonian saying, 'Hey, can't you do something about X that happened back in Washington, D.C.?' "

After Ferguson spoke, soon-to-be state Attorney General Nick Brown took the podium. Brown said he has been "inundated" over the past day with concern from people in Washington and across the state about the future.

"My commitment to this office and to all the men and women is that we will be prepared," Brown said. "We will be prepared for whatever comes, and we will do everything in our power to defend the rights of Washingtonians."

Ellen Dennis' work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.