10-07-2025
New Democratic Group Says Answer to the Party's Woes Lies With the States
Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania arrived Tuesday at an intimate dinner for Democrats thinking about state politics to deliver an urgent message.
They had real power, he said. Use it.
'The states are no longer just our laboratories' for testing policies, Mr. Shapiro told the group of Democratic donors, strategists and state legislators, who spent their evening dining on pretzel-wrapped mini hot dogs, vegan Caesar salads and beef short ribs at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. 'Now, they are the bulwarks of democracy.'
The states, he added, are 'the most important, consequential counterbalance to Donald Trump's lawlessness and Donald Trump's overreach.'
The governor's remarks were delivered at the kickoff for the States Forum, a new initiative designed to help expand and entrench Democratic state legislative successes across the country at a time when the national party, locked out of power in Washington, remains adrift.
The States Forum, which has not been previously reported, is part ideas journal, part convention gathering and part network of state legislators and policy thinkers, who are focused on state-level initiatives that could be translated to additional states and even the national stage.
The initiative was founded by the team behind the States Project, a well-funded outside group that has spent more than $130 million on state legislative races in the past two election cycles. The States Forum will be a separate entity with an initial budget of $4 million.
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