Illinois’ Democratic leaders vow vigorous policy defense under a second-term Trump

Illinois’ Democratic leaders promised a vigorous defense — and potential court action — against any moves by President-elect Donald Trump to try to erode personal liberties or withhold federal funds for the state during his coming four-year tenure.

But as Trump campaigned on plans for mass deportation of immigrants, a rolling back of transgender rights and climate change controls, a likely GOP Congress considering a federal abortion ban and elimination of the Affordable Care Act, Illinois Democrats acknowledged they could not predict what the unpredictable former president will do once he’s in office.

“Chaos, retribution and disarray radiated from the White House the last time Donald Trump occupied it,” said Gov. JB Pritzker, a vehement critic of Trump both while he was in office and out of it the past four years. “Perhaps this time may be different.”

But Pritzker vowed in the wake of Tuesday’s election results that he’d fight any federal efforts that conflict with Illinois’ policies or rights of its residents.

“To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom, and opportunity, and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior,” the second term governor said. “You come for my people, you come through me.”

The state found itself a virtual political Midwest island in supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, whose electoral votes also went for the Democratic ticket. Illinois’ politicians braced for what impact a second Trump administration would bring, especially given his vows of retribution against political enemies amid his history of inflammatory rhetoric attacking Chicago.

“It’s immigrant rights. It’s reproductive rights. It’s basically everything I know and I love and I stand for. That’s what I’m afraid of,” said state Sen. Celina Villanueva, a Democrat from Chicago.

Villanueva said Trump’s win must lead to more organization among pro-immigrant groups and better education that “people still have rights in this country.” Beyond that, she said, “everything is up in the air.”

Fears of 'less restraint,' federal interference 

Attorney General Kwame Raoul said Democratic attorneys general across the nation had been coordinating over the last few months, preparing for the potential of a second Trump presidency and discussing when they might ask the courts to step in.

Raoul cited Trump’s history on immigration issues, the general uncertainty over the fate of the Affordable Care Act, and the potential weakening of worker classification protections benefiting employers and resulting in the loss of overtime or benefits as issues he’s keeping an eye on. Trump’s first term was also riddled with controversy in which he became the first president to be impeached twice, including on accusations he incited an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as part of a deadly riot.

“There’s going to be less restraint and less respect for the boundaries that the American people and the rule of law have recognized for decades,” Raoul said, an acknowledgment of Trump’s pledge to surround himself with loyalists and a recent decision by a conservative U.S. Supreme Court that broadened presidential immunity for “official acts.”

Brandon Lee, a spokesman for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said the group wants to work with Raoul’s office to make sure that state laws such as the Trust Act, which generally prohibits local police from participating in federal immigration enforcement, is on solid ground even if Trump tries to supersede it.

Brian Johnson, the chief executive officer of Equality Illinois, said he’s worried the Trump administration might try to pull federal funding from hospitals that practice gender-affirming care or from schools following Illinois’ law that requires teaching about the contributions of LGBTQ+ people.

And Sarah Garza Resnick, president of the abortion rights-supporting Personal PAC, questioned whether the new administration would seek to ban mifepristone, which when used with another drug, terminates early pregnancies.

But Pritzker sought to assuage concerns the new administration in Washington, D.C., would attack personal rights in Illinois, saying protections were placed in state law with a presidency like Trump’s in mind.

“Illinois will continue to be a refuge for those whose rights are being denied elsewhere, women seeking reproductive health care, immigrants searching to work hard for a better life, LGBTQ Americans looking for welcome and protection, and people with disabilities whose civil and human rights are under attack,” he said.

Still, Pritzker acknowledged he had met with his senior staff the day after the election and spoke with other governors and was gathering “a list of things that we may need to address” in state law.

“There are many people whose lives and livelihoods are at risk and there are many people who cried at the result because they know what impact it may have on their families,” the governor said.

“But I feel like a lot of that work has been done over the last five-and-a-half years to protect the people of Illinois from something, you know, terrible happening at the federal level or some attack on Illinois residents,” he said.

EVs, energy and manufacturing

Pritzker has focused heavily in his second term on attracting business to Illinois, particularly in the realms of clean energy, electric vehicles and high-tech manufacturing. Those efforts have worked in concert with Biden policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act, which included incentives for clean energy and EVs, and the CHIPS and Science Act, which seeks to boost domestic semiconductor production.

Trump has vowed to pull back unspent funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the GOP would try to repeal the CHIPS Act if his party maintains control of the House, though he later walked back those remarks.

Illinois has benefited from those federal programs, said Mark Denzler, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, but the state also has similar programs of its own that don’t require support from Washington.

“Illinois’s been ahead of the curve by passing some of these incentives into state law to make sure that we’re attractive” to businesses, Denzler said.

Nevertheless, Pritzker chief of staff Anne Caprara said the administration is concerned about the potential for the Trump administration to roll back those policies.

“I hope they get in and realize these were big drivers of the flourishing economy that they’re about to inherit and that repealing them would be bad for business, it’d be bad for the country,” Caprara said Thursday. “But I don’t think Trump makes a lot of decisions based on what’s good policy. I think he makes decisions based on how he feels that moment and who he’s mad at.”

Following the election results, Mayor Brandon Johnson also pledged he would “never back down in my duty to protect and advocate for the people of Chicago.” But he also said his administration would use the weeks before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration to “ensure that Chicago strengthens and expands the strongest possible local protections for our residents.”

Tribune reporters Dan Petrella, Alice Yin, Jeremy Gorner, Sarah Freishtat and Lizzie Kane contributed.