FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Trump administration is partnering with conservative state legislators to codify the “Make America Great Again” agenda throughout the country.
The White House has met with lawmakers from states including Louisiana, Missouri, and Wyoming about how states can enact back home what President Donald Trump is doing on the federal level.
But because Republican state lawmakers often vote like Democrats once they’re elected, the White House’s most trusted friends in legislatures are members of the 13 State Freedom Caucus chapters, according to Andy Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network.
“We are their biggest allies,” he told The Daily Signal about the relationship between the state chapters and the administration. “We are the ones that most closely believe in and most vocally support their efforts.”
The White House’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs has proactively reached out to state lawmakers to share the administration’s priorities and how state lawmakers can help advance them.
“I’ve never known another administration to reach out directly to state legislatures the way that the Trump administration is currently reaching out,” Louisiana Freedom Caucus Chair Beryl Amedée told The Daily Signal.
Louisiana Republicans met with members of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council and Cabinet members Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Aug. 12 at the White House.
Nick Schroer, a Missouri state senator who was part of his state’s delegation to the White House, said he thinks the president’s interest in state legislatures could pressure state-level Republicans who often vote with Democrats to get in line with the party platform, particularly when it comes to redistricting.
“I think if Trump engages on certain things like school choice, like returning the power back to the states, like election integrity, like the 7-1 map in the state of Missouri, you’re going to have a lot of these people that normally won’t vote the right way—pursuant to our party platform—all of a sudden they’re going to jump in line,” Schroer told The Daily Signal.
A 7-1 map for the state of Missouri refers to a proposed redistricting plan opposed by Democrats and some Republicans that would result in seven Republican districts and one Democrat district. Missouri currently has a 6-2 map favoring Republicans.
According to Amedée, the White House officials who spoke to the Louisiana lawmakers encouraged them to take full responsibility for their state’s education system as the Trump administration works to shut down the federal Department of Education.
“The effort at the federal level is to return education back to the states, and to accomplish that, the states are going to have to take the lead, because every state has individual needs and priorities,” she said. “Instead of waiting for the federal government to tell us what to do in education, they’re going to free us up so that we can just move forward with whatever Louisiana needs.”
State Freedom Caucus members believe they will be particularly valuable in advancing the president’s agenda on election integrity, redistricting, education, and energy.
“It’s just been a perfect marriage where the Freedom Caucus and the Trump administration are working to combat all that the Left has done in all of these states where they’ve gerrymandered like crazy,” Schroer said.
The Missouri congressional map is a result of “weak Republican leadership,” said Justin Sparks, another Republican state representative.
In 2022, 14 Republicans in Missouri, including Senate leadership, joined 10 Democrats in rejecting the proposal for a 7-1 congressional map in favor of a map where Democrats get two seats.
But Sparks said he has hope that Trump’s leadership will inspire Missouri state leadership to call a special session and redraw a 7-1 map.
“We have a strong executive in the White House that is really doing what it takes to lead by example,” he said. “You have to hit some of these Republicans over the head to get them to wake up.”
“That’s really what the Freedom Caucus does,” he continued. “We try to bring the the reality of what is actually happening in the world and to get outside of the institutionalization of the Capitol building and understand that Democrats are playing for keeps.”
He said the president is “leading by example,” inspiring wayward Republicans to enact the MAGA agenda.
“They [the Trump administration] recognize how important this is, and are leading by example and telling Republican legislatures, ‘Start being Republicans and start doing what the people have elected you to do. Start actually using the mechanisms of power that are available to you, constitutionally and statutorily, to do and represent your people well,’” he said. “And it’s about time.”
Roth, the State Freedom Caucus president, said the White House understands that the idea that politics is Republicans versus Democrats is an old way of thinking. The real battle, Roth said, is conservatives versus the swamp, due to the “unholy alliance” that exists in state legislatures between liberal Republicans and Democrats.
But State Freedom Caucus members are “on the White House’s side, and a lot of these so-called Republicans are not,” Roth said.
Wyoming is an example of how conservative state lawmakers can codify the MAGA agenda, according to Wyoming state Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams. The Legislature in the Cowboy State has delivered on Trump’s priorities of requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, enhancing voter list maintenance laws, and banning ranked-choice voting.
After Trump called for a ban on mail-in voting and voting machines, Wyoming Freedom Caucus members announced plans to pass such laws in their state.
“I believe that the battle is within the states, and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ priorities with state legislation definitely align with President Trump’s agenda,” Rodriguez-Williams told The Daily Signal. “We are working very hard to carry out the priorities of this administration through state legislation.”
Missouri’s Sparks has never seen an administration work with state lawmakers in this way, he said.
“This is the first time that I personally have seen an administration recognize that, in order to accomplish their policy goals and their agenda, they have to do it on the state level as well as the federal level,” he said. “That is actually really a novel approach and understanding. We have all these Republican states with Republican governors and Republican legislatures, but they’re not necessarily governing that way, and so we need to identify that, recognize why that is, and then take steps to remedy it.”
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