WA governor and AG-elects prepare to stand up to Trump, Project 2025

Washington is the only blue state in the nation where the vote did not shift toward Donald Trump this week. Democrats here are preparing for another Trump term. Many of them feel the President-elect will be able to achieve more of what he's been promising.

Washington Governor-elect Bob Ferguson and Attorney General-elect Nick Brown held a press conference today. KUOW’s Kim Malcolm talked to politics reporter Scott Greenstone about their transition plans.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: In Trump's first administration, AG Ferguson sued him nearly 100 times. What did Ferguson say about his future approach to this new incoming administration?

Scott Greenstone: It was a long press conference, but there weren't very many details, partially because he said he didn't want to give away their legal strategy. I think he's probably not sure what's ahead. Some of it is uncharted territory. He said he will “not seek an adversarial relationship” with Trump, but the vibe was, "We're ready." He emphasized that in the past 12 years, he's grown the Attorney General's Office with money from settlements. He sued the administration about 99 times, and he was standing in front of the lawyers who worked a lot on the litigation during Trump's first term. Here's what he said:

“My team has gone line by line through Project 2025 and has been tracking remarks by President Trump on the campaign trail.”

Project 2025 being this extensive plan to remake the federal government. Trump has said he's not going to pay attention to it, but it was written by some people close to him. Ferguson also emphasized that Trump may be better prepared too, both on the legal side, and with staff who are more committed to him than last time.

Trump talked about a lot of things on the campaign trail — mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, sending the military after far-left activists. He also threatened to cut federal funding from local governments that did not want to work with him. Did Ferguson offer any insights into what he would do to potentially stop any of that from happening here?

Not really. He emphasized the president has a lot of power. The state can litigate if Trump does something the attorney general deems unconstitutional or that harms Washingtonians. But the governor can only act off of what's in the statutes, and without the Legislature, it's kind of hard for him to act. This is maybe one reason you're seeing Governor Gavin Newsom in California call a special session of the Legislature before Trump takes office, potentially to give himself more powers, or to give the state more powers to resist the Trump administration. Those things could be a protection of abortion rights, things like that.

Washington's next attorney general, Nick Brown, was also at this press conference. What do we know about his upcoming role?

I think it seems pretty clear that he's going to be an attorney general in the mold of Bob Ferguson, who rose to the front ranks of the resistance against Trump in 2017. Here’s one thing he said:

“It’s going to be our obligation to make sure that we are defending the rights of everyone in Washington state, citizen and non-citizen alike, to make sure that their rights are not being violated.”

That stood out to me, of course, because of Trump talking about deporting undocumented immigrants nationwide. I think the thing that stood out to me about both of these men who are preparing to take on new roles is the ways that they searched for words, the ways that they got a little emotional, especially Bob Ferguson talking about his daughter trying to make sense of this election. There were several moments where he seemed really moved and couldn't find the right words for the moment.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.