Trump Is President Again, and Leading Female Democrats Are Telling Us to Step Up (2025)


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Donald Trump will move into the White House this January 20 to begin his second term as president, having won both the Electoral College and the popular vote over Kamala Harris. With all eyes on Washington, D.C., for his swearing-in, Democrats fear the rise of an era of mass deportations, a new American oligarchy, and attacks on everything from education to women’s and queer rights—all ushered in by a convicted felon who has been found liable for sexual abuse.

Ahead of Inauguration Day, Harper’s Bazaar spoke with a group of the country’s leading female Democrats—Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Representative Ilhan Omar, Representative Jasmine Crockett, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Cassandra Levesque, and former Representative Beth Fukumoto—to ask, simply, what comes next?

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The feelings leading up to Inauguration Day

“When I saw that the American people chose an old white man with 34 felony counts over a qualified Black woman who has served as California Attorney General, U.S. senator, and vice president, I felt sadness for our country,” Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett tells Bazaar.

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A passionate defender of reproductive justice, trans rights, and criminal justice reform, among many other things, the congresswoman is not reluctant to admit how concerned she is for 2025’s America. “Kamala Harris has a beautiful family and a long career ahead of her—she’ll be fine. It’s the American people who are about to feel the consequences of this decision, and I think we’ll be feeling it for a long, long time,” she says.

Trump has promised that on his first day in office, he will not only kick off major deportations of undocumented immigrants, but also end birthright citizenship and, in his words, “terminate every open-borders policy of the Biden administration.” He will also pardon his supporters who trampled their way into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, causing the death of five people, in an effort to overturn the election Trump lost to Joe Biden. Trump has also claimed he will end the war between Russia and Ukraine. (He has not been shy about his admiration for dictator Vladimir Putin, and has vocally opposed to sending aid to Ukraine.)

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“If you’re looking for me to sugarcoat the reality we’re facing, I can’t do that,” Crockett says. “Donald Trump, his far-right friends at the Heritage Foundation, and his oligarch buddies have openly admitted they plan on implementing Project 2025 policies—like banning abortion nationwide and gutting our public education system—starting on day one of his second term.”

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Beth Fukumoto, who served in the Hawaii House of Representatives from 2013 to 2018 and was the youngest person to serve as the House Minority Leader, left the Republican Party to become a Democrat once Trump got elected in 2016, “after years of growing discomfort with the party’s direction.” Her reaction to his second win: “I was devastated.”

“For years, I tried to advocate for a more inclusive and diverse Republican party. I was the youngest woman and only Republican woman of color to lead a party in a U.S. legislature, at the time, which made me a unique voice for change. But after Trump’s election, I was told very clearly by my party that I would be silenced for if I continued to criticize the president. At that point, it became clear that all the effort my allies and I put in to change the party failed,” she tells Bazaar.

Trump didn’t create the racism or sexism we see in today’s party—he brought them to the forefront and gave them an outlet. And it’s only gotten worse since I left,” she adds. “The party I once supported—a party of fiscal responsibility and individual liberty—has been redefined by fear, exclusion, and authoritarian tendencies.”

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New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says she shares “that feeling of hopelessness and disappointment” that so many are experiencing at the start of another MAGA presidency. But she insists that rather than freeze with rage and disbelief, those with any morals left need to step up and “organize and unite to help protect our most basic rights, which our opponents are constantly trying to erode and will continue to do over the next four years.”

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Rep. Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, joins the rest of the women in her “deep disappointment” over Harris’s loss. “This wasn’t just about losing an election—it was about seeing so many Americans choose a vision of our country that doesn’t align with our values of inclusion and justice,” she says, pointing to Trump’s grim vision for America.

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“People are exhausted,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan notes. “They want leaders to work on their problems and get things done. Where we agree, I am going to try to make progress. Where we diverge, I am going to stand up for Michigan, as I always have. I took office in the middle of the first Trump presidency, so I’ve been through this before.”

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Glimmers of hope

The Democrat leaders Bazaar spoke to all agreed on one thing: There are still plenty of Americans, in and out of politics, who are still prepared to work hard on the part of progressive causes.

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“I’ve learned throughout my life that setbacks are not permanent unless we allow them to be,” Omar says. “It’s important to remember that we have many progressive voices who have been re-elected to Congress who are not afraid to push back on the hateful policies that Trump and his allies will be driving through in the next few years.”

Omar has been working in government for nine years now. She is the first Somali-American Muslim woman in the nation to hold a state legislative office, and—along with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts—a member of what has become known as “The Squad,” the group of four congresswomen who are some of Trump’s strongest critics. She’s an advocate for safeguarding the environment, protecting immigrants, fostering education, and creating an inclusive foreign policy that centers on human rights. If anyone’s justified in worrying about what the next four years may bring, it’s her—and yet, she sees reason for optimism.

Omar points out that many of the Dems in leadership positions, herself included, have worked through a Trump administration before, “and will use what we learned the first time around to stand for our Democratic and progressive values.” For her, that means fighting on multiple fronts. “We’ll continue to show up for the working class and ensure our government holds the needs of everyday people above the interests of the wealthy and powerful, stand against attacks on our immigrant communities, and continue to fight for the environmental safeguards we need to build a more sustainable future.”

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Gillibrand says she is “feeling particularly hopeful” at this moment because as one of his final acts as president, Biden declared that the Equal Rights Amendment is finally a valid part of the Constitution. She says that while she “anticipate[s] that this new administration will present us with challenges in court,” Biden’s move is nonetheless a big win for the millions of women living in states with restrictions on their reproductive freedoms who can now “file lawsuits to overturn these unconstitutional laws that discriminate against people based on their sex.”

Finding the will to press on

“Bad things happen, and some people cannot advocate for themselves, so being their voice and sharing their stories and perspectives is what makes me push on,” says Rep. Cassandra Levesque of New Hampshire. “There is a reason why we have public committee meetings and speeches on the House floor. We may bring a new perspective that may change the way someone votes, which is why we should keep advocating and fighting. People are counting on us. We may not win, but we certainly cannot give up.”

Omar agrees, saying that when she sees mothers struggling with childcare costs, LGBTQ+ youth facing discrimination, or students drowning in student debt, “I’m reminded that giving up is not an option.” She says that the key to getting things done is simply to get things done: “You get what you organize for.”

“The attacks on our rights are an attempt to deny people their humanity. Real change has never been handed to us, it comes from strategic organizing at the grassroots level,” Omar continues. “We can create lasting change when we refuse to back down and show up consistently.”

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Crockett is preparing for the worst, but says there is one silver lining for liberals in all this: House Democrats picked up one more seat in 2024 than they had in the 118th Congress, leaving House Republicans with an even smaller margin to govern than they had before.

“Republican Congress members know that their majority is hanging by a thread—so if your readers want to make a real difference, they need to find out who their members of Congress are and save their office number in their contacts,” she tells Bazaar. “Stay engaged on upcoming legislation, let your member know how you’d like them to vote, and watch their votes on Congress.gov. Be polite but persistent. Remember, your Representatives work for you—not Trump, and definitely not Elon Musk.”

Find your members of Congress here.

Where the fight goes now

“As we face the return of Donald Trump and his extremist agenda, our mission is more critical than ever. As a coalition, we must ensure a unified front against what will be an agenda fueled by fear and hatred,” Omar says. “Over the next four years, our focus will be to show the American people that there is a better way forward.”

The issues on her agenda: fight for a higher minimum wage, expand the Child Tax Credit, make healthcare universal—“so no family is forced to choose between medicine and rent”—“and push for a fair tax code where billionaires and corporations finally pay their fair share.”

Whitmer says that on an immediate, local scale, her focus remains on “lowering costs, fixing the roads people drive on, and increasing access to a good-paying job,” because these are things “we can all get behind—regardless of political party.” But on a larger scale, she adds, “Michiganders expect me to keep fighting for and protecting women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and so much more. As a mom of two adult daughters, one of whom identifies as a gay woman, I must stand up for their fundamental rights.”

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Fukumoto notes that this election result should serve as a reminder that progress isn’t guaranteed. “If we want our vision for the future to succeed, we have to connect with people in ways that show them how our solutions will directly improve their lives. In the next four years, we need to do more than just resist harmful policies—we need to articulate and advocate for a compelling, hopeful vision of the future. Trump will provide endless opportunities for outrage, and while we must push back, we also need to focus our energy on presenting alternatives,” she says.

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During Harris’ campaign run, Fukumoto worked with United to Preserve, a program that took scholars to swing communities to discuss the importance of preserving our democratic institutions. “I’ve been reflecting on Martin Luther King Jr.’s words: ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,’” says Fukumoto, noting the irony that Trump’s second term starts on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when we celebrate a leader who stood for equality and advocated for peace. “Change doesn’t happen overnight, and progress requires perseverance. We just have to keep pushing forward. If history has taught us anything, it’s that apathy is the surest way to lose our democracy.”

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