Trump’s Agenda 47 — What It Means for Democracy
As Donald Trump and his campaign embark on their “Agenda 47” tour, in which the former president and his supporters lay out his official policy, many aspects of Trump’s plan are already playing out across the country.
In September, Trump’s campaign kicked off the “Team Trump Agenda 47 Policy Tour,” sending surrogates to various U.S. cities to discuss specific issues related to Trump’s plan for a second term. This past weekend, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) spoke to voters in Savannah, Georgia, about the economy and the border.
The RNC, Trump campaign and right-wing legal groups have filed dozens of anti-democracy lawsuits so far this cycle.
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The tour comes as Trump and his running-mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), continue to distance themselves from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s sprawling right-wing plan to remake the federal government by rolling back civil rights protections and gutting federal agencies like the Department of Education.
While Agenda 47, spanning just 16 pages, is a fraction of the 900-plus-page Project 2025 treatise, the campaign’s proposed policies regarding voting and abortion rights, democracy and other issues reflect the broader Republican Party platform on these issues. And GOP lawmakers aren’t waiting for another Trump administration to push for measures that align with his agenda.
Meanwhile, Democrats are still pushing legislation that would expand voting access but have sat dormant for years. Specifically, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA) and the Freedom to Vote Act. Pro-voting advocates say the legislation would establish — and restore — nationwide protections for voters.
“Our system works better when everybody participates in it,” Jay Young, senior director of voting and democracy at Common Cause, told Democracy Docket. “And we want to make it easier for everybody to participate.”
Trump pledges to ‘secure our elections’
One of the central tenets of Trump’s Agenda 47 is securing the nation’s elections: “We will implement measures to secure our Elections, including Voter ID, highly sophisticated paper ballots, proof of Citizenship, and same day Voting. We will not allow the Democrats to give Voting Rights to illegal Aliens,” the agenda says.
This past year alone, Republicans have passed a number of restrictive voting laws in a potential indication of what to expect if Trump secures a second term.
Currently in September, for instance, a potential government shutdown looms over the nation due in part to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) attempt to force a vote on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require anyone registering to vote in federal elections to provide documentary proof of citizenship. Trump and Vance reportedly pressed Republicans to not reach a deal unless the SAVE Act passes.
“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, “THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET …”
On the state level, there are at least 20 pending proposals on noncitizen voting, according to the Voting Rights Lab. In May, the Republican-led Legislature in New Hampshire passed a law that will require voters to present photo IDs and proof of citizenship (it will take effect after the election).
In July, Tennesseans panicked after receiving letters from election officials seeking proof of citizenship regarding the state’s voter rolls. And in August, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) issued an executive order essentially reiterating the fact that it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.
Since 2020, at least eight states — Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio and Wyoming — passed laws to require a form of ID to vote, according to a report from the Movement Advancement Project.
In North Carolina, Republicans are also trying to restrict which types of IDs are accepted from voters. The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit in September against the State Election Board for allowing University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill students and employees to use digital IDs as a valid form of photo identification for in-person voting.
On abortion, Trump says states are ‘free to pass Laws protecting those Rights’
While the issue of abortion rights has been a vulnerability for Trump, he’s touted the fact that after the fall of Roe v. Wade, states have greater authority to regulate abortion access. At the Sept. 10 presidential debate, Trump said “every legal scholar, every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative, they all wanted” abortion “brought back to the states.”
Trump’s Agenda 47 says: “Republicans Will Protect and Defend a Vote of the People, from within the States, on the Issue of Life.” As GOP-led states pass abortion restrictions in the wake of Dobbs, voters in Arizona and Montana will decide whether their states enshrine abortion rights into their constitutions.
But not without Republican opposition. In Montana, for example, pro-democracy groups successfully sued Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen (R) in July for trying to exclude “inactive” voters’ signatures from the total count for abortion and democracy reform ballot initiatives.
This month, Missouri’s highest court ruled a measure that would also establish a right to abortion will be on the ballot in November, despite pushback from Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.
Trump says Republicans ‘Will Stop Woke and Weaponized Government’
Trump also vows to hold accountable “those who have misused the power of Government to unjustly prosecute their Political Opponents. We will declassify Government records, root out wrongdoers, and fire corrupt employees.”
While the details are sparse, the item mirrors the goals of Project 2025, which are to reform the Federal Bureau of Investigation and strip the Department of Justice of its independence, turning it more into a tool at his disposal.
Trump and his allies have railed against government corruption long before he was charged in multiple criminal cases, but the criticism seemed to escalate after his indictments and the launch of his campaign. And while Trump has not detailed exactly how he’d use the government to “root out wrongdoers,” his plan for retribution has alarmed pro-democracy advocates who believe it’s at odds with the nation’s democratic principles.
“It is alarming that this idea of retribution is a plank in his platform,” Young said. “That’s not how we’re supposed to function as a democracy. That’s not democratic, that’s autocratic.”
Read more about Project 2025 here.
This story has been corrected to reflect that Jay Young is the senior director of voting and democracy at Common Cause, not the executive director of Common Cause Illinois.