State Sovereign Powers
State Power vs. Federal Power
A Conversation with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
8 PM Eastern, 7 PM Central, 6 PM Mountain, 5 PM Pacific
States have sovereign powers.
Learn how blue states are using them to fight
the excesses of the Trump administration
Residents of states decide how their state will run elections, not the federal government, according to the U.S. Constitution. No executive order can take that right away.
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States can hold federal agents accountable for violations of laws – and no Trump pardon can override a state court's guilty verdict.
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States can withhold cooperation with a corrupt federal agenda, making it unenforceable. Back in 1850, that's what Northern states did after Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act.
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States can cooperate with other states by, for instance, sharing templates for lawsuits, as twenty-three Democratic state attorneys general are now doing.
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States can build parallel systems of independence. Oregon is stockpiling abortion medication. Illinois is pushing digital sovereignty. California is storing up rainy day funds.
How is New Mexico protecting its citizens from Trump’s infringements on their rights? And what more can state leaders do? You’ll get to ask Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham these and other questions in an online fundraiser for Blue CD2 NM on Tuesday, March 31, 6-7pm.
We'll also share a bit about us, what we've done to help elect Gabe Vasquez twice in a red district, and our plans for 2026.
Your donation will help us buy billboards, social media, online ads, and text-messaging campaigns to build awareness of the vast overreach and destructive chaos of the Trump administration and how we can push back by voting.
Our Speaker
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is the thirty-second governor of the state of New Mexico and the first Democratic Latina to be elected governor in U.S. history. She was a state Cabinet secretary at both the New Mexico Department of Aging and Long-term Services and Department of Health. She was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2011, serving three terms in Washington on behalf of New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District. Lujan Grisham was born in Los Alamos and graduated from St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe before earning undergraduate and law degrees from the University of New Mexico. A 12th-generation New Mexican, she is the mother of two adult children and grandmother of three.​
Host - Jim Collie​
Jim Collie has lived in Albuquerque over thirty years. Until his retirement in 2010 he was an administrator for churches of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the northern half of New Mexico. In 2020 he was appointed by the Governor to fill a one year vacancy on the Bernalillo County Commission. It was during that year of Covid that he learned the usefulness of Zoom.
Moderator - Eddie Estrada​
Eddie may be a familiar face. He helped Blue CD2 New Mexico grow and develop our approach in 2023 as our Executive Assistant - and he's gone far since. He's now the Communications Director for the New Mexico House Campaign Committee.
Presenter
​Blue CD2 NM Founder and Co-chair, Rochelle Williams
Presenter
Blue CD2 NM Co-chair, Constance Mussells