On the same night that Americans narrowly elected Donald Trump, Californians voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton. They sent 39 Democrats to the House of Representatives out of 53 seats. They elected Kamala Harris, a liberal Democrat whose father is Jamaican and whose mother is Indian, to the U.S. Senate. They gave Democrats supermajorities in the state Legislature. They passed ballot propositions to legalize recreational use of marijuana, raise the tobacco tax, ban high-capacity magazines, relax parole rules for nonviolent felons, increase transparency in the legislative process, repeal the decades-old limits on bilingual education, and extend higher income taxes on the wealthy, reports the California Sunday Magazine. 

 Now ... how can the state protect its gains? Or is Trump’s election an opportunity for California to show a new way forward?

More:  With a GDP of $2.5 trillion, it has the sixth-largest economy in the world. With 39 million people, it is by far the most populous state in the union. Two of the nation’s most influential industries — tech and entertainment — reside primarily in California. The state is the fifth-largest supplier of food in the world. And on many of the great policy challenges of our time, like providing health care and fighting climate change, it has led the way. 

As the president pro-tempore of the California State Senate, Kevin de León, a Democrat, has become a bastion of resistance against Trump's anti- immigration policies. 

De León thought of the people in his district, a swath of Los Angeles that includes a swath that includes Filipinotown, Thai Town, Little Tokyo, Little Armenia, Little Bangladesh, and the Latino bastion of Boyle Heights. It also included on of the largest populations of Koreans outside of the Korean peninsula and one of the greatest concentrations of Central Americans outside of Central America, reports the California Sunday Magazine. 

“We don’t want a fight. We’re not looking for a fight. But we’re ready to defend this state and its people.”, he said.