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By Joanne O’Connor, Bridge2Blue
Democratic governors knew that a second Trump administration would be far worse than his first and that blue states would be targeted. Candidate Trump promised his followers that he would seek retribution if he returned to the People’s House. His revenge intentions, plus the crushing policies he planned to implement from the Project 2025 playbook, brought Democratic governors together, joining forces to prepare for a future under another Trump presidency.
Within a week of Trump’s deflating 2024 election win, Democratic governors formed Governors Safeguarding Democracy (GSD) to leverage the collective strength and experience in governors’ offices across the country. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) co-chair the initiative to protect against the president-elect’s threats to our democracy and work together to strengthen government institutions. There are 25 states in the GSD coalition.
GSD partners with Governors Action Alliance (GovAct), a nonpartisan nonprofit that supports governors and implements urgent initiatives with the ability for meaningful
governor action and impact. In October 2025, GovAct established these critical initiatives:
Virginia Joins Alliances
Virginia became the newest member of the Reproductive Freedom Alliance in June 2026. As part of the alliance, Governor Spanberger said she will “continue doing everything in my power to preserve the rights of Virginians seeking reproductive care and making sure families across our Commonwealth can continue making their own personal healthcare decisions.”
Virginia did not join the Governors Public Health Alliance. Instead, Gov. Spanberger partnered with the Northeast Public Health Collaborative (NEPHC), launched in September 2025, to ensure that regional healthcare advice remains grounded strictly in science and data. The NEPHC is a voluntary regional coalition of public health agencies and leaders brought together to share expertise, improve coordination, enhance capacity, strengthen regional readiness, and promote and protect evidence-based public health. The Collaborative has formed working groups to identify opportunities for collaboration and shared planning across multiple public health disciplines.
A similar independent regional alliance, the West Coast Health Alliance, was established around the same time by California, Oregon, and Washington.
Blue states are facing worsening relationships with President Trump and his compliant administration. In October 2025, The Department of Energy terminated more than $7.5 billion dollars in financial awards motivated by a partisan desire to retaliate against “Blue States.” In a letter to then-Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Democratic members of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology provided evidence that Secretary of Energy Chris Wright lied to the committee about why the funds were cancelled.
Many blue states send more money to the federal government than they receive back, and Trump will continue his attempts to withhold funds from his supposed blue state enemies which, together, increases the funding discrepancy.
Is it time for blue state governors to take matters into their own hands and stop funding the beast? Is there nothing to lose and everything to gain? This argument is growing stronger among political and legal experts.
This is an escalating crisis of punishing blue states by withholding federal funding can be defused by Democrats winning control of Congress. Vote on November 3 (Democratic up and down the ballot; also for the three constitutional amendments on the ballot). Early voting in Virginia begins on September 18.
