Collective State Action Can Stop Trump and Protect Democracy

Ten months into his second term, President Donald Trump has overrun much of official Washington. Under the GOP, Congress has abdicated its status as a coequal branch of government. The Supreme Court has made it clear it won’t stand in the way of Trump’s authoritarian power grab. Even the Beltway press has decided it’s better off pulling its punches.

That’s left the states as the focal point of resistance. State leaders have boldly helmed the fight against Trump’s bid to use the National Guard to take over major cities. They’re effectively countering his effort to use gerrymandering to rig the 2026 elections. And they’re warning louder than anyone about the danger that he’ll try to use the federal government to seize control of elections.

Now comes the test: this is the moment to embrace the full scope of state-level power. Blue states in particular must use every lever to fight fascism and improve lives. One of the most powerful — and underused — tools is what I call collective state action. 

We already know the strength of collective action. The next step is applying it to the states themselves — to germinate a movement of states governing not in isolation, but in concert. A new coalition of the willing to govern.

Collective state action means states working together: pooling resources, harmonizing policies, and coordinating responses to federal failures and national challenges. As we look to next year, states have powerful opportunities to collaborate on election security. The 2026 elections will unfold amid growing threats and renewed attempts by the Trump administration to undermine election systems and officials. States can respond together by sharing threat data, coordinating cybersecurity training, and running joint tabletop exercises. Cross-state working groups, like the one State Futures — which I launched in March — is organizing for legislators, can exchange strategies and playbooks to counter disinformation and reinforce voter confidence.

But it goes beyond protecting fair elections. Collective state action can take formal shape through interstate compacts or unfold through nimble alliances among state leaders — like the five State Financial Officers who recently issued a joint letter to the Department of Transportation defending the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, or the three who warned of the potential fiscal damage caused by the administration’s disappearance of federal economic data. Attorneys general, for example, have long used this playbook through multistate litigation — a proven model of coordinated state power.

Collective state action means states working together: pooling resources, harmonizing policies, and coordinating responses to federal failures and national challenges.

States acting together is nothing new, but the right has long done it better. For too long, progressives have clung to the comforting myth that America has 50 “laboratories of democracy.” As Heather Gerken, former Yale Law School dean and incoming president of the Ford Foundation, noted, that story is a campfire tale. In reality, there are two laboratories: one red, one blue. And as political scientist Alexander Hertel-Fernandez has established, the red one has been winning. For decades, conservatives have treated cross-state coordination as a core organizing principle. ALEC, the State Policy Network, the State Financial Officers Foundation and others have mastered the art of collaboration: drafting model bills, convening officials, and spreading ideas from Florida to Texas.

The left has been slower to build similar infrastructure. But the accelerating collapse of federal reliability changes everything. Washington is not just abdicating responsibility; it is turning its power into a weapon of fear, greed and grievance. When the CDC is gutted, when environmental and labor protections are eliminated, when critical data is politicized or withheld, states are left to fill the void. That void is now the frontier of American governance and the proving ground for its future. 

Pooling state power is not exotic. During COVID, governors banded together to source personal protective equipment and ventilators, and let health professionals practice across states. Today, more than 250 interstate compacts exist, from managing waterways to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Many include states across the political spectrum, including nursing and social work licensure compacts. What’s new is the urgency, and the opportunity, to expand this cooperation across every policy arena. 

Imagine states pooling purchasing power to drive down prescription drug prices, as Oregon, Washington, and Nevada have explored through the ArrayRx program. Or jointly funding regional mediation centers to replace the hollowed-out Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, ensuring workers have fair venues to resolve disputes. 

These need not be wishful musings. The seeds of a movement are already growing. To uphold scientific integrity in public health, September saw Western states launch the West Coast Health Alliance, and northeastern states formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative. California and Nevada recently joined a firefighting compact to share resources as climate disasters intensify. And more than 20 state legislators from across the country recently held a joint press conference to highlight their “No Secret Police” bills. 

Meanwhile, infrastructure for cooperation is taking shape. The Democratic Governors Association and GovAct are convening governors. NYU Wagner Labor Initiative convenes attorneys general and state labor officials on workers’ rights issues. And State Futures now connects more than 600 state legislators and state financial officers nationwide through cross-state working groups on federal response, health care, labor standards and election security.

This is what collective state action looks like in practice — and it’s only the beginning.

To be sure, we still need a functioning federal government. Collective state action won’t solve everything — but it must be a permanent part of our strategy. It’s about swiftly exercising power and showing what government can do. As the Roosevelt Institute’s new report on government effectiveness argues, people want less talk and more results. Government needs to act — fast, and in ways people can feel. The same is true for states: the best way to rebuild trust is to govern visibly, boldly, and together.

This month’s elections show Americans do not want to walk this twilight path toward democratic destruction.

None of this requires permission from Washington. States already have the authority to pass compacts and coordinate informally. Governors, attorneys general, legislators, state financial officers and regulators can all participate. The constraint is not law, but imagination.

When states act together, their impact multiplies. Shared data saves money. Coordinated procurement shifts corporate behavior. Harmonized standards reshape markets. And visible cross-state cooperation shows the public that government still works, and that leaders can act with creativity, urgency, and purpose.

The alternative is 50 states scrambling separately while the federal government dismantles the very structures meant to hold us together. That path leads to fragmentation and despair.

This month’s elections show Americans do not want to walk this twilight path toward democratic destruction. We want action and courage. As Washington, D.C. caves to Trump, the responsibility for governing falls to the states. Those in this coalition of the willing to govern now have both the mandate and the means. The task ahead is to turn momentum into a movement — one that treats collective state action not as a last resort, but as the new normal.

If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that democracy is not self-executing. Power unused is power lost. States possess tremendous, untapped strength. It’s time to pool it — boldly, expansively and with a shared purpose: building a future worth fighting for. The time for collective state action is now. 

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Gaby Goldstein is Founder + President of State Futures, which supports a network of over 600 state policymakers. Through working groups, policy research, and strategic support, State Futures empowers state leaders to learn from each other, innovate together, and take coordinated action across states.