Republicans Pushed Hundreds of Bills This Year to Curtail Local Governments

This week, President Donald Trump escalated his plans to send National Guard troops into blue cities — fighting in court to deploy them to Portland and sending others to Chicago ostensibly to fight crime and support federal immigration agents. He has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act if courts rule against him. While images of soldiers on city streets offer a visible show of federal power, a quieter takeover is simultaneously emerging: state preemption.

On March 17, the Fort Myers City Council declined to approve an agreement that would have entered the Florida city’s police department into a partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Those who voted ‘no’ could not have foreseen what came next.

The following morning, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rebuked the council members who opposed the agreement, posting on X: “The days of inaction are over. Govern yourselves accordingly.” Hours later, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to the council threatening to remove the lawmakers from office, which he shared on X, adding: “Fix this problem or face the consequences.”

This was no empty threat. In February, the Florida legislature passed a pair of immigration bills, SB 2-C and SB 4-C, that targeted “sanctuary” policies in the state. The new laws not only required municipalities to cooperate with ICE, but also gave the governor the authority to remove local officials that got in the way.

Three days after the removal threats, the council held an emergency meeting and voted unanimously in favor of the immigration agreement.

What happened in Fort Myers could happen anywhere in the U.S., experts warn. Florida’s bill represents one of hundreds of GOP-sponsored preemption bills that threaten the ability of cities and towns to govern independently. So far this year, lawmakers in 48 states have pushed more than 800 bills seeking to wrestle control from local jurisdictions — nearly double the number from the previous year — according to a recent report from the Local Solutions Support Center (LSSC), a nonpartisan nonprofit that focuses on local democracy. This uptick reflects a troubling trend, experts say, with the Trump administration signaling to states to consolidate power to help advance its agenda.

So far this year, lawmakers in 48 states have pushed more than 800 bills seeking to wrestle control from local jurisdictions.

“Trump needs the states because they have the authority to implement many of his actions, particularly around immigration,” said Katie Belanger, the lead consultant at LSSC.

Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has made immigration raids in cities and towns across the country a defining priority of his administration. At the same time, state lawmakers have introduced nearly 10 times more bills than last year targeting local immigration policies, the report found. But preemption efforts in conservative states have not been limited to any single issue. Rather, state lawmakers this year have targeted an array of local laws concerning civil liberties and protections, including LGBTQ rights, housing, elections, workers’ rights, and education.

Take Oklahoma. In May, lawmakers passed a bill — HB 1217 — in an attempt to ban drag shows. The law carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. While on the books, the state’s governor and attorney general are at odds on how to enforce the statute.

In Missouri, HB 595 effectively legalized a form of housing discrimination against low-income families. The new law overrides local regulations that prevent landlords from rejecting rental applications from people who receive federal housing subsidies.

Five states — Arkansas, Kansas, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming — passed bans on ranked-choice voting. Two states — Utah and Florida — prohibited local governments from adding fluoride to drinking water. Montana barred vaccine mandates for shots under emergency authorization.

“Some of the stuff that was shocking even five years ago is now so commonplace that we’re numb,” said Lori Riverstone, a prominent researcher of state preemption at Illinois State University.

“Some of the stuff that was shocking even five years ago is now so commonplace that we’re numb.”

Riverstone, who in 2017 published an article documenting conservatives’ increased use of preemption as a tool for blocking progressive policies in their states, worries that what researchers initially saw as a short-term strategy has now become the norm.

“It’s just blown up,” Riverstone said, adding, “We’re being boiled by degrees.”

Since January, hundreds of preemption bills have been introduced across the country, though only a fraction — about 11 percent — have been signed into law, according to the LSSC report. Many others that became law have faced legal challenges, such as a Tennessee law that created criminal penalties for local officials who adopt sanctuary immigration policies, and a Louisiana law that required public schools to post the Ten Commandments inside of classrooms. Similarly, a controversial section of Florida’s new immigration law, which makes it a felony for some undocumented immigrants to enter the state, is under a court injunction.

But while many bills fail to become law, and others get tied up in legal battles, experts say that may not be the point. Leslie Zellers, a public policy attorney who co-leads LSSC’s legal team, described the Republicans’ strategy as “laying the groundwork and really kind of shifting the argument to incorporate ideas like this, which were not mainstream a year ago.” Another goal, she says, is to appease President Trump.

“Some of those are definitely Republican lawmakers, maybe in a blue state or a purple state, and they are introducing the bill to show that they support the Trump agenda,” said Zellers.

Lawmakers in Florida did not shy away from their support for the president when they named an early version of their immigration bill the “TRUMP Act.” Legislative leaders in Florida reportedly consulted with the Trump administration while working on the bill. Governor DeSantis, promoting a version of the bill on X, called the legislation “necessary to ensure that Florida leads on fulfilling the Trump Administration’s mandate to enforce immigration law and deport illegal aliens.”

As the GOP’s willingness to use preemption as a political tool grows, so does the scope of the bills aiming to centralize power. Increasingly, conservatives have explored blanket preemption policies, known as “Death Star” bills, which give states the authority to impose their will on local governments with progressive policies. In 2023, Texas lawmakers passed a bill that effectively nullified local laws that conflict with state laws in a number of areas, including agriculture, finance, labor, and natural resources. The Texas “Death Star” bill survived a court challenge in July.

This year, Tennessee enacted a “Death Star” preemption, giving state lawmakers the ability to challenge local laws they object to by requesting an investigation by the state attorney general. Cities and towns that are found in violation of state law could have state funding withheld should they not address it.

“[State legislators] are largely using preemption to punish cities for doing things that they don’t like,” said Luke Fowler, a professor of public policy and administration in the School of Public Service at Boise State University.

When the Fort Myers City Council reconvened for its emergency meeting on March 21, city officials heard from anxious residents during a public input session. Kathy James, a Fort Myers resident and veteran, told lawmakers that she felt like her vote was meaningless after Governor DeSantis threatened to remove council members from office.

“I haven’t seen anything like this since what was reported in Germany in the 1930s,” James said. “People need to wake up.”

Examples like Fort Myers have experts worried that Republicans are trying to send a message to other officials who may disagree with their agenda.

“It is a very chilling effort to really silence duly elected local leaders who are doing what their constituents voted them into office to do,” said Belanger.

In the meantime, opponents of state preemption have had to get strategic about how to push back. Lawsuits in Texas, Tennessee, and Florida have had mixed success. Local officials and activists have successfully blocked or mitigated preemption efforts through organizing efforts in recent years, according to a January report that Zellers co-authored. The wins, however, come at a cost.

“It’s a huge time-suck for advocates to try to counter these negative bills and put in the effort to try to get them stopped,” said Zellers.

Another approach, Fowler says, may be laying low.

“[Democrats] are figuring out how to operate in an environment where they don’t have to call attention to the things they’re doing,” Fowler said. “If they do the exact same things, and they just do it quietly behind closed doors, don’t really invite attention, they can normally get away with it,” adding that, “in bureaucracy, where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Note: Edward Monares and Bianca Sieraski contributed additional reporting for this article.