Washington governor-elect announces subcommittee to combat Project 2025

Washington governor-elect Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, announced Monday that he is creating a subcommittee in his transition team that will have the sole purpose of fighting Project 2025.

The transition team expects Project 2025 to be pushed by the Trump Administration despite President-elect Trump's efforts during his campaign to distance himself from the controversial proposal.

Ferguson's committee will be co-chaired by Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates CEO Jennifer Allen and King County Councilmember Jorge L. Barón, who is also a former executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Fox 13 reported.

"We are preparing in case President Trump attacks Washingtonians' core freedoms," Ferguson said, according to the outlet. "We will keep Washington moving forward no matter what happens at the federal level."

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Project 2025 is a controversial initiative organized by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation that was authored by a number of conservatives, including some former Trump administration officials.

The initiative offered right-wing policy recommendations for Trump's second term, including replacing civil service employees with Trump loyalists, abolishing the Department of Education, criminalizing pornography, eliminating DEI programs, cutting funding for Medicaid and Medicare, rejecting abortion as health care, carrying out mass deportations and infusing the government with Christian values.

During his campaign, Trump had sought to distance himself from the initiative, which has been criticized as being an authoritarian and Christian nationalist plan that would undermine civil liberties, saying he knew nothing about it, that parts of it are "absolutely ridiculous and abysmal" and that its backers are on the "radical right."

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Former Trump officials also told POLITICO ahead of Election Day that people involved in Project 2025 would be blacklisted from his administration.

But Trump has selected authors and contributors for Project 2025 to serve in his next administration, including Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Tom Homan as "border czar," Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy and Brendan Carr as chair of the Federal Communications Commission.

"This is a critical time in our nation as we look to the possibility of our communities being under attack from many different directions," Allen said, according to Fox 13. "I'm honored to serve on Governor-elect Ferguson’s transition team and to co-chair this subcommittee to support his leadership in our state and country in championing and safeguarding reproductive rights and all of the rights of Washingtonians."

Barón said he is "honored to assist Governor-elect Ferguson in his transition into this new role and to co-chair this important subcommittee," Fox 13 reported.

"As an immigrant and as the proud parent of a trans daughter, I am particularly grateful that the Governor-elect is committed to protecting all Washington state residents, and especially those communities at greatest risk of having their rights attacked by the incoming federal administration," Barón continued.

Ferguson's office said the subcommittee will establish policy priorities for his first 100 days in office, according to Fox 13, although specific policy proposals have not been released.