WASHINGTON (AP) — While Republican states were working to limit school history lessons and ban transgender athletes, President Joe Biden’s education chief says he was focused on what matters: putting more social workers in schools, expanding summer school and building a pipeline of new teachers.

In an interview during his last days in office, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said he sought distance from the battles waged by Republican governors who he says were out to make a name for themselves.

“I’m not going to get distracted by culture wars,” Cardona said. “It’s nonsense, and I think the people that spew it, they make a fool of themselves. I don’t need to help them.”

Cardona said he wants to be remembered for “substance, not sensationalism.” He helped schools reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic. He oversaw a historic infusion of federal aid to America’s schools. Under his watch, more than 5 million Americans got student loan cancellation.

Yet his time in office will also be remembered for the politics swirling around him. Conservatives and some experts now say COVID school reopenings were too slow, pointing to ongoing academic shortfalls and concerning trends in youth mental health. Even after the pandemic, education became a battleground, as conservatives rallied to rid what some see as “wokeness” being promoted by educators in the classroom. Republican states passed laws limiting what schools can teach about race and sexuality, and many adopted laws and rules banning transgender athletes in school sports.

Cardona said he did what he could to push back. The Education Department investigated civil rights complaints in cases of alleged discrimination. He issued what was seen as a landmark rule expanding Title IX, a sex-discrimination statute, to protect LGBTQ+ students.

But he ran up against the limits of his authority. A federal judge scrapped the Title IX rule, and Republican states ignored his pleas to promote diversity in education.

“We saw in this country what I think is a step backwards in terms of student rights,” he said. “The reality is, the federal government has a limited role in state policy.”

Cardona, 49, came into office after a rapid rise in the world of education. The son of Puerto Ricans, he spent years as a fourth-grade teacher, a principal and a district administrator before becoming Connecticut’s education chief. Biden had promised to appoint a secretary with teaching experience as a foil to Trump’s first education secretary, pro-school-choice philanthropist Betsy DeVos.

Early in his tenure, Cardona tried to use the bully pulpit to bring Republican governors in line. In letters to the governors of Florida and Texas, Cardona sparred over mask mandates and COVID testing. He says he changed course after finding that’s what they wanted — a national platform to win attention before the 2024 presidential election.

He said it wasn’t a good use of his time “going tit-for-tat with a governor who’s hell-bent on being the most anti-Biden so that he could make it on the presidential ballot.”

Messages left with the offices of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott were not immediately answered.

The political fights extended to the courts, where Republican states successfully killed some of Biden’s signature education plans, including widespread student loan cancellation, a more generous student loan repayment plan, and his Title IX expansion.

Other plans withered after failing to gain support in Congress, including a push for free community college.

Yet Cardona says there were more victories than losses. Under Biden, the maximum Pell Grant for low-income college students saw its biggest increase in a decade. More than 1 million public workers got student loans canceled after the Education Department retooled a troubled program. New legislation allowed schools to hire 16,000 mental health professionals.

“What we did is going to have a tremendous impact in our schools,” he said. “When you have more school social workers, psychologists, more reading teachers, more after-school programs, more summer programs than in the history of our country, there’s 50 million kids out there that are going to benefit from that.”

Cardona sought to play down what critics say was one of the lowest points of his tenure — a bungled overhaul of the federal financial aid form known as FAFSA. Congress ordered the Education Department to simplify the notoriously complex form, but a series of glitches led to delays in college financial aid decisions for months.

Critics called it a crisis and predicted that the frustration would deter some students from going to college at all. Cardona disputed the idea, citing new data from the National Student Clearinghouse finding that enrollment of college freshmen increased this fall.

Cardona called the FAFSA update a trying time that “really tested us.”

“And in my opinion,” he said, “we passed the test.”

In a farewell speech earlier Tuesday, Cardona urged his departing colleagues not to despair, even as they wonder if the next administration will undo policies and slash budgets. Cardona said he’s leaving with hope “because I never, ever bet against our nation’s teachers and students.”

They are the ones “who will write the next chapter, who will decide the fate of public education,” he said. “There’s no one education secretary or president that does that, and no one leader can break our resolve.”

___

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Collin Binkley, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — While Republican states were working to limit school history lessons and ban transgender athletes, President Joe Biden’s education chief says he was focused on what matters: putting more social workers in schools, expanding summer school and building a pipeline of new teachers.

In an interview during his last days in office, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said he sought distance from the battles waged by Republican governors who he says were out to make a name for themselves.

“I’m not going to get distracted by culture wars,” Cardona said. “It’s nonsense, and I think the people that spew it, they make a fool of themselves. I don’t need to help them.”

Cardona said he wants to be remembered for “substance, not sensationalism.” He helped schools reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic. He oversaw a historic infusion of federal aid to America’s schools. Under his watch, more than 5 million Americans got student loan cancellation.

Yet his time in office will also be remembered for the politics swirling around him. Conservatives and some experts now say COVID school reopenings were too slow, pointing to ongoing academic shortfalls and concerning trends in youth mental health. Even after the pandemic, education became a battleground, as conservatives rallied to rid what some see as “wokeness” being promoted by educators in the classroom. Republican states passed laws limiting what schools can teach about race and sexuality, and many adopted laws and rules banning transgender athletes in school sports.

Cardona said he did what he could to push back. The Education Department investigated civil rights complaints in cases of alleged discrimination. He issued what was seen as a landmark rule expanding Title IX, a sex-discrimination statute, to protect LGBTQ+ students.

But he ran up against the limits of his authority. A federal judge scrapped the Title IX rule, and Republican states ignored his pleas to promote diversity in education.

“We saw in this country what I think is a step backwards in terms of student rights,” he said. “The reality is, the federal government has a limited role in state policy.”

Cardona, 49, came into office after a rapid rise in the world of education. The son of Puerto Ricans, he spent years as a fourth-grade teacher, a principal and a district administrator before becoming Connecticut’s education chief. Biden had promised to appoint a secretary with teaching experience as a foil to Trump’s first education secretary, pro-school-choice philanthropist Betsy DeVos.

Early in his tenure, Cardona tried to use the bully pulpit to bring Republican governors in line. In letters to the governors of Florida and Texas, Cardona sparred over mask mandates and COVID testing. He says he changed course after finding that’s what they wanted — a national platform to win attention before the 2024 presidential election.

He said it wasn’t a good use of his time “going tit-for-tat with a governor who’s hell-bent on being the most anti-Biden so that he could make it on the presidential ballot.”

The political fights extended to the courts, where Republican states successfully killed some of Biden’s signature education plans, including widespread student loan cancellation, a more generous student loan repayment plan, and his Title IX expansion.

Other plans withered after failing to gain support in Congress, including a push for free community college.

Yet Cardona says there were more victories than losses. Under Biden, the maximum Pell Grant for low-income college students saw its biggest increase in a decade. More than 1 million public workers got student loans canceled after the Education Department retooled a troubled program. New legislation allowed schools to hire 16,000 mental health professionals.

“What we did is going to have a tremendous impact in our schools,” he said. “When you have more school social workers, psychologists, more reading teachers, more after-school programs, more summer programs than in the history of our country, there’s 50 million kids out there that are going to benefit from that.”

Cardona sought to play down what critics say was one of the lowest points of his tenure — a bungled overhaul of the federal financial aid form known as FAFSA. Congress ordered the Education Department to simplify the notoriously complex form, but a series of glitches led to delays in college financial aid decisions for months.

Critics called it a crisis and predicted that the frustration would deter some students from going to college at all. Cardona disputed the idea, citing new data from the National Student Clearinghouse finding that enrollment of college freshmen increased this fall.

Cardona called the FAFSA update a trying time that “really tested us.”

“And in my opinion,” he said, “we passed the test.”

In a farewell speech earlier on Tuesday, Cardona urged his departing colleagues not to despair, even as they wonder if the next administration will undo policies and slash budgets. Cardona said he’s leaving with hope “because I never, ever bet against our nation’s teachers and students.”

They are the ones “who will write the next chapter, who will decide the fate of public education,” he said. “There’s no one education secretary or president that does that, and no one leader can break our resolve.”

___

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Collin Binkley, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an announcement postponed by the Los Angeles wildfires, President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated two sites in California as national monuments that will honor Native American tribes while shielding picturesque mountains and deserts from mining and energy development.

Biden made the designations at an event at the White House, a week after — and on the other side of the country from — how he’d originally planned to do so, with a speech in California’s Eastern Coachella Valley.

The president landed in California on Jan. 6, but made it as far as Los Angeles before high winds — that helped spark the Los Angeles blazes — forced officials to scrap the event. It was a stark reminder that, even as Biden uses the last days of his administration to attempt to safeguard the environment, climate change is already helping to exacerbate natural disasters.

Instead, Biden spoke next to screens featuring towering peaks, desert vistas and an array of plant and animal life.

“I was hoping we were going to do this in place,” the president said. “This is as close as we could get.”

Biden formally created the Chuckwalla National Monument, in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park, and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, in Northern California.

The declarations bar oil and natural gas drilling, as well as mining and other exploration and production initiatives, on the 624,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) Chuckwalla site, and roughly 225,000 acres (800 square kilometers) near the California-Oregon border.

The protected area encompasses natural wonders including the Painted Canyon of Mecca Hills and Alligator Rock, and is home to 50-plus rare species of plants and animals like the desert bighorn sheep and the Chuckwalla lizard — which the monument is named for, the White House said in a statement.

At the event, Biden talked about taking his children to national monuments around the country yearly when they were young to “witness the majesty, the beauty.”

“Our national wonders are the heart and soul of this nation,” he said. “It’s a birthright we pass on from generation to generation. ”

The monuments becoming realities honor past tribal requests. Many Native American tribes and environmental groups have pushed for designation of the Chuckwalla National Monument, while the Pit River Tribe has worked to get the federal government to designate the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument.

Biden joked about being careful not to mispronounce Sáttítla, then still struggled to pronounce it. When he sat down to sign the formal acts, he simply referred to it as the “highlands” monument — meaning he didn’t have to give it another try.

The designations are part of a larger Biden administration effort to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. They follow Biden’s recent move banning new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, including in California.

That was an attempt to thwart possible efforts by the incoming Republican administration to expand offshore drilling, but is also an order President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to quickly reverse.

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Will Weissert, The Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday said college professors should be fired if they are “indoctrinating” students, echoing rhetoric her former boss President-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans have leveled against institutions of higher education.

Sanders, a Republican who served as press secretary for part of Trump’s first term, made the proposal as she delivered her state of the state address for this year’s legislative session.

“Arkansas students go to our colleges and universities to be educated, not to be bombarded with anti-American, historically illiterate woke nonsense,” Sanders told members of the predominantly Republican House and Senate. “We will make it so that any professor, tenured or not, that wastes time indoctrinating our students instead of educating them can be terminated from their job.”

It’s unclear how such a restriction would be enforced. Sanders’ office did not immediately give examples of the types of topics that would be barred under her proposal. Sanders made the vow as part of a plan to improve the state’s higher education system, including changes to its funding formula.

Sanders’ proposal to fire professors over “indoctrination” drew criticism from civil liberties and faculty groups. Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, called it a “grossly hypocritical false narrative.”

“Sanders is doing a disservice to Arkansas students by suggesting she will deny due process for faculty with ideas she disagrees with,” Wolfson said. “Maligning a system that is an engine of innovation and bedrock of our democracy hurts Arkansas students.”

Democratic Rep. Andrew Collins, the House minority leader, said he was worried the impact Sanders’ firing proposal would have on higher education.

“I’m not sure how you avoid excessive politicization of higher education when you introduce this kind of content control,” Collins said.

Sanders’ comments follow vows by Trump to go after “wokeness” and “leftist indoctrination” in education. He pledged to dismantle diversity programs that he says amount to discrimination and to impose fines on colleges “up to the entire amount of their endowment.”

It also comes as Republicans in other states, including Alabama, Idaho and Texas have enacted measures targeting higher education, particularly diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Colleges and universities have also been cutting majors and programs seen as unprofitable.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023 overhauled the board of trustees for The New College of Florida, a tiny liberal arts institution once known as the most progressive of Florida’s public campuses, appointing a new majority of conservative allies.

The proposal isn’t the first time Sanders has proposed ending “indoctrination” in education. A massive overhaul of the Arkansas education system she signed in 2023 included a measure placing limits on how race and sex are taught in public schools.

A federal judge last year ruled the state couldn’t use the law to ban two teachers from discussing critical race theory in the classroom. An appeal of that preliminary decision is pending before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Andrew Demillo, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is cohosting a reception with billionaire Republican donors next week for Donald Trump’s inauguration, the latest sign of the Facebook founder’s embrace of the president-elect.

The reception cohosted by Zuckerberg is set for Monday evening, shortly before the inaugural balls, according to two people familiar with the private plans who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss them.

The other cohosts are Miriam Adelson, the Dallas Mavericks owner and widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson; Tilman Fertitta, casino magnate, Houston Rockets owner and Trump’s pick to serve as U.S. ambassador to Italy; Todd Ricketts, the co-owner of the Chicago Cubs; and Ricketts’ wife, Sylvie Légère.

Zuckerberg once seemed a foe of the former president, banning him from Facebook and Instagram after a mob of Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But lately, he’s been endearing himself to Trump as one of a number of tech executives who have been seeking to improve their relationships with the new president.

Meta declined to comment Tuesday.

In November, weeks after Trump won the presidential election, Zuckerberg flew to Florida and dined with the Republican at his Mar-a-Lago club. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.

Zuckerberg announced last week that he was changing Facebook and Instagram content moderation policies, including replacing third-party fact-checking with user-written “community notes.” Trump said the new approach was “probably” due to threats he made against the technology mogul.

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Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York and Barbara Ortuay in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Zeke Miller And Colleen Long, The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued a slew of aggressive executive orders on his first full day as West Virginia’s chief executive Tuesday, including one enabling families to receive religious exemptions from required school vaccinations — a massive departure for a state with one of the strictest vaccine policies in the nation.

Another order called for the termination of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, initiatives from state-run institutions, something Morrisey said he believes will protect West Virginians from racial and gender discrimination — especially “inappropriate” preferential treatment for certain groups over others.

“I think the public deserves nothing less,” he said at a news briefing at the state Capitol. According to U.S. Census estimates for 2024, West Virginia’s population is just under 93% white, making it among the least diverse U.S. states.

Efforts to end DEI initiatives are expected to expand in Republican-led states under President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to get rid of perceived “wokeness” in education. Some higher education institutions are already dismantling diversity offices in states such as Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas.

In announcing the executive orders, Morrisey cited the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to strike down affirmative action, declaring race cannot be a factor in college admissions. Morrisey said his administration would be sending letters to all cabinet officials and agency heads asking them to review any “potential DEI that may exist within state government.”

He wouldn’t specify what DEI initiatives he was referring to, but said they exist: “Before I start calling everyone out, I want to see the changes put in place.”

West Virginia Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin was not impressed with the executive orders, calling them a “troubling example” of executive overreach that “could harm us for generations.”

Pushkin accused the governor of using “divisive rhetoric aimed at dividing people by race” adding that it appears to him that the governor is “trying to not just make laws, but also interpret them.”

“The newly elected governor of West Virginia needs to remember that he’s the governor for all of us, even people who don’t necessarily have the same beliefs as him and also people who don’t look like him,” he said.

During his press briefing, Morrisey said the governor’s role is to help ensure that the Constitution is interpreted “correctly and enforced the right way.”

The vaccine executive order upends a school vaccination policy long heralded by medical experts as one of the most protective in the country for kids. State law requires children to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before starting school. The state does not require COVID-19 vaccinations.

West Virginia is also part of a tiny minority of U.S. states that only allows medical exemptions for vaccinations.

The move also represents a radical departure from the stance of former West Virginia governor and current Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, who last year vetoed a less sweeping vaccination bill passed by the Republican supermajority Legislature that would have exempted private school and some nontraditional public school students from vaccination requirements.

At the time, Justice, who is a girl’s public school basketball coach and became known across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic for his pro-vaccine stance, said he had to defer to the licensed medical professionals who “overwhelmingly” spoke out in opposition to the legislation.

A faction of the Republican-controlled Legislature has tried for years to no avail to expand exemptions to the state’s school vaccination laws.

Morrisey, who served as West Virginia’s attorney general from 2013 until he was sworn in as governor Monday, said he believes religious exemptions to vaccinations should already be permitted under a 2023 law passed by the state Legislature called the Equal Protection for Religion Act.

The law stipulates that the government can’t “substantially burden” someone’s constitutional right to freedom of religion unless it can prove there is a “compelling interest” to restrict that right.

Morrisey said that law hasn’t “been fully and properly enforced” since it passed.

The process for applying for a vaccine exemption, which is still being finalized, will likely involve parents explaining their religious beliefs in writing to the state Bureau of Public Health, the governor said. He said he also plans to clarify with lawmakers, who return to the Capitol for their 60-day session next month, that religious exemptions are permitted under the state’s vaccine statute.

U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates dipped in 2023 and the proportion of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted in October.

The share of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 3.3%, up from 3% in 2022. Meanwhile, 92.7% of kindergartners got their required shots, which is a little lower than the previous two years.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic the vaccination rate was 95%, the coverage level that medical professionals say makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.

West Virginia previously had some of the highest vaccination rates in the country. A recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on kindergarten vaccination exemptions cited the state as having the lowest exemption rate in the country, and the best vaccination rates for kids that age.

Along with Mississippi, West Virginia is the U.S. state with the worst health outcomes and lowest life expectancy rates.

Leah Willingham, The Associated Press

A push by Texas’ hard right to widen control in the state Capitol fell short Tuesday after House lawmakers rejected its choice for the powerful speakership amid a Republican feud accelerated by the historic impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Instead, new House Speaker Dustin Burrows won the job with the support of Democrats, who favored him over a challenger backed by the GOP’s emboldened right.

The outcome is a victory for Texas Republicans’ establishment wing, and it’s possible that Democrats could still lose influence under the new leadership. The race deepened divisions within the GOP, partly driven by Republicans who say an agenda that includes some of the toughest laws in the U.S. over abortion and immigration doesn’t go far enough.

“He’s a leader who will at least have a conversation,” Democratic state Rep. Toni Rose said in a nomination speech for Burrows.

Burrows was challenged by state Rep. David Cook, who pledged to block Democrats from running committees in the House — a longstanding bipartisan tradition in a chamber that has historically been a more moderate balance to the hard-right-leaning Senate.

Burrows will lead one of the state’s highest offices after a dramatic bowing-out of the former House speaker, Dade Phelan, who lost favor with the hard-right faction of his party after Paxton’s impeachment. The state Senate ultimately acquitted Paxton, who in recent weeks campaigned against Republicans who sought to deny Cook’s victory.

The newly elected speaker has few ideological distinctions between himself and Cook, but his opponent came to be the choice of some Republicans who believe Democrats have too much control over the House.

The House’s failure to approve taxpayer funds for private schools in 2023 also intensified Republican squabbles in the run-up to November’s elections, when Republicans expanded their already commanding majority and gained ground on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Texas in recent years has passed some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on abortion, immigration and voting. Republicans this year have proposed bans on public funds for gender-affirming care for adults and giving in-state college tuition for students without legal status in the U.S.

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This story has been edited to clarify that Democrats, not Burrows, could still lose influence.

Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Nadia Lathan, The Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia House of Delegates passed resolutions on Tuesday enshrining rights to abortion, voting and marriage equality in a critical step for Democrats hoping to amend the state’s constitution next year.

The chamber, where Democrats hold a razor-thin 51-49 majority, advanced the three proposed constitutional amendments Tuesday while sister resolutions work their way through the Senate. Unlike other bills, proposed constitutional amendments are not subject to vetoes by the governor, but they must be twice passed in at least two years, with a legislative election sandwiched between each legislative session. After that, the public can vote by referendum on the issues.

If the abortion ballot measure is ultimately successful, Virginia would become a rare southern state to join a growing trend of states putting reproductive rights-related ballot questions to voters.

“I trust our Virginia voters,” said Democratic Majority Leader Charniele Herring, patron of the amendment protecting abortion. “It seems like the other side of the aisle does not.”

In a lively debate, Republicans blasted the proposed amendment to protect abortion, which passed along party lines. Republican Del. Mark Earley described the resolution as a failure to recognize the image of God in fetuses.

“This resolution is not only extreme — and it is,” he said on the House floor. “But the real problem with it is that it’s fundamentally misguided because it refuses to open its eyes to the lives and futures of children.”

Democratic Del. Candi Mundon King called for lawmakers to recognize the lives of women caught in life-threatening pregnancies, in a scathing rebuke of Republicans’ arguments.

“Let’s pass this resolution so that people who probably couldn’t find a uterus with a map are not making decisions about women’s health care,” she said.

Elsewhere, since 2022, 18 questions have gone before voters across the U.S., and they have sided with abortion rights advocates 14 times. The voters have approved constitutional amendments ensuring the right to abortion until fetal viability in nine states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Vermont. Voters also passed a right-to-abortion measure in Nevada in 2024, but it must be passed again in 2026 to be added to the state constitution.

Democratic lawmakers in both chambers said on Tuesday that the constitutional amendments were central to their legislative agenda this year. In a news conference with Virginia Black legislators, Sen. Jennifer Carroll-Foy said the amendments were critical for the state to shatter inequality.

“Virginia has been going backward for far too long,” she said. “We understand that we were the home of segregation … of slavery, of Jim Crow. And now we are forward-facing and forward-moving. So we need to ensure that our Virginia constitution reflects our values here in Virginia.”

In a bipartisan 55-44 vote, lawmakers also voted to revise Virginia’s process to restore voting rights for people who served time for felony crimes, which Democrats describe as a relic of disenfranchisement. The vote came after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, to the dismay of voting-rights advocates, rolled back a process to restore people’s civil rights after they completed sentences for felonies. Virginia is the only state that permanently bans anyone convicted of a felony from voting unless a governor restores their rights.

In a plea to lawmakers to pass the amendment, Democratic Del. Cia Price said on the Virginia House floor: “We cannot live in the past, we have to live in the present. And presently, we have a governor that is not restoring rights at the rate of previous Republican and Democratic governors, and we’re about to have a convicted felon as a president,” referencing President-elect Donald Trump, who was convicted by a jury of 34 felony convictions.

Lawmakers have previously attempted to put up the resolutions in 2022 and 2023, though they were unsuccessful in the House, where Republicans previously had an edge. Next year, the amendments’ successful passage will likely again hinge upon Democrats’ ability to preserve their majority in the statehouse. All seats in the House are on the ballot in November.

The amendment with the most bipartisan support was the resolution protecting marriage equality. Following a 58-35 vote supporting the proposal, Democratic Del. Mark Sickles described his belief that the resolution reflects an evolving Virginia.

“The public opinion changed so much,” he said. “Barack Obama was against same-sex marriage at one time, and he changed. Everybody’s had a chance to change.”

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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Olivia Diaz, The Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — As President-elect Donald Trump plans bold moves for his first days in office, so too are conservative lawmakers in Wyoming, the first state where Trump-friendly Freedom Caucus members have won control of a statehouse chamber.

It marks a big test for the Freedom Caucus movement, which has spread from Washington to a dozen state capitols during the past decade, including to Missouri and Oklahoma last year. The conservative network is adding a 13th chapter Tuesday in Democratic-led Maryland.

With the start of Wyoming’s legislative session Tuesday, the Freedom Caucus majority in the House starts the clock on an aggressive agenda to pass five priority bills in 10 days targeting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, dismantling diversity initiatives, prohibiting state investments that prioritize green energy over fossil fuels, and cutting property taxes.

“What we are here to do is get the job done. The people have clearly given us a mandate,” incoming House Speaker Chip Neiman said.

So far, the Freedom Caucus has existed largely as an opposition faction to more moderate or mainstream Republicans in charge of legislative chambers. But now its members will get a chance to lead.

“Wyoming is, I think, a Poli Sci 101 case study,” said Andrew Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, who’s hopeful that success in the Cowboy State can be replicated elsewhere. “If conservatives enact policies that they said they would on the campaign trail, it’s infectious with voters, and the voters will continue to reward them.”

Though not a majority, the Freedom Caucus significantly expanded its ranks last year in Louisiana and joined with new GOP Gov. Jeff Landry to enact a sweeping conservative agenda that included stronger gun rights, the display of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms, and the authority for police to arrest migrants who enter the U.S. illegally. Neither of the latter two laws are currently being carried out as legal challenges continue.

Wyoming, the nation’s least-populated state, has long trended Republican. Growing GOP dominance in recent years has made Democrats downright hard to find in some places, so divisions instead have become significant within Wyoming’s GOP. That fault line could start deepening as the Freedom Caucus in the House contends with Wyoming’s more traditionally Republican state Senate and Gov. Mark Gordon, whom Trump criticized in 2023 as “a very liberal guy.”

Gordon, who vetoed a Freedom Caucus-backed bill to cut property taxes last year, said he remains open to cooperation.

“There are a lot of issues we see eye to eye on,” Gordon said. “It will be interesting to see the bills that they bring forward.”

A Washington movement into the states

The Freedom Caucus has been active in the U.S. House since 2015, gaining widespread attention when some of its members helped topple former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during the last session of Congress.

An outgrowth of the group, the State Freedom Caucus Network, launched in 2021 in Georgia and has been spreading to other states since then. It has about 175 members this year — up more than a quarter since the 2024 elections, Roth said.

The Freedom Caucus nearly doubled its ranks in South Dakota after last year’s elections and now counts the House leaders — though not members — as allies who “see things in a very similar light as far as legislation goes,” said Rep. Aaron Aylward, vice chairman of the state’s Freedom Caucus chapter.

In Wyoming, the list of incumbents ousted by Freedom Caucus-endorsed candidates included House Speaker Albert Sommers, who was attempting to move up to the Senate, and House Speaker Pro Tem Clark Stith.

Though they suffered some losses, candidates aligned with Freedom Caucus also toppled prominent Republicans elsewhere, including South Carolina’s assistant House majority leader.

Caucus members often portray themselves as the Republican Party’s true conservatives, sometimes pressing colleagues into uncomfortable votes on amendments and blocking or slowing debate to make a point. As a result, they tend to clash with Republican legislative leaders.

Freedom Caucus members in Missouri and South Carolina recently made longshot bids to win House speaker elections. But both were soundly defeated.

Five and Dime Plan

In a bit of sloganeering rare for Wyoming, the state Freedom Caucus chapter is billing its five-issue, 10-day agenda as the ” Five and Dime Plan.” It’s seeking to move at an unusually quick pace, even for a legislature that meets for just two months this year.

At the top of its list are two immigration-related measures. One would require voters to prove their Wyoming and U.S. citizenship; the other would invalidate driver’s licenses issued by other states to Wyoming residents living in the country illegally.

Other prongs of the plan would target diversity requirements at colleges and universities, prohibit environmental and social factors from being taken into consideration in state investments and slash residential property taxes by 25%.

The Freedom Caucus says its polling shows strong support for its plan.

The agenda is “probably the most responsive we’ve seen government in decades in Wyoming,” said Freedom Caucus member Rep. John Bear.

Gordon is skeptical the Freedom Caucus has as much support as it claims, pointing to low turnout in last year’s Republican primary that chose many of the Legislature’s new Freedom Caucus members.

“We didn’t hear from a very large portion of the state,” Gordon said. “But here they are, and I look forward to seeing what they can accomplish.”

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.

Mead Gruver And David A. Lieb, The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued a slew of aggressive executive orders on his first day as West Virginia’s chief executive Tuesday, including one enabling families to receive religious exemptions from required school vaccinations — a massive departure for a state with one of the strictest vaccine policies in the nation.

Another order called for the termination of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, initiatives from state-run institutions, something Morrisey said he believes will protect West Virginians from racial and gender discrimination — especially “inappropriate” preferential treatment for certain groups over others.

“I think the public deserves nothing less,” he said at a news briefing at the state Capitol. According to U.S. Census estimates for 2024, West Virginia’s population is just under 93% white, making it among the least diverse U.S. states.

Efforts to end DEI initiatives are expected to expand in Republican-led states under President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to get rid of perceived “wokeness” in education. Some higher education institutions are already dismantling diversity offices in states such as Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Texas.

In announcing the executive orders, Morrisey cited the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to strike down affirmative action, declaring race cannot be a factor in college admissions. Morrisey said his administration would be sending letters to all cabinet officials and agency heads asking them to review any “potential DEI that may exist within state government.”

He wouldn’t specify what DEI initiatives he was referring to, but said they exist: “Before I start calling everyone out, I want to see the changes put in place.”

West Virginia Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin was not impressed with the executive orders, calling them a “troubling example” of executive overreach that “could harm us for generations.”

Pushkin accused the governor of using “divisive rhetoric aimed at dividing people by race” adding that it appears to him that the governor is “trying to not just make laws, but also interpret them.”

“The newly elected governor of West Virginia needs to remember that he’s the governor for all of us, even people who don’t necessarily have the same beliefs as him and also people who don’t look like him,” he said.

During his press briefing, Morrisey said the governor’s role is to help ensure that the Constitution is interpreted “correctly and enforced the right way.”

The vaccine executive order upends a school vaccination policy long heralded by medical experts as one of the most protective in the country for kids. State law requires children to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis-b, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before starting school. The state does not require COVID-19 vaccinations.

West Virginia is also part of a tiny minority of U.S. states that only allows medical exemptions for vaccinations.

The move also represents a radical departure from the stance of former West Virginia governor and current Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, who last year vetoed a less sweeping vaccination bill passed by the Republican supermajority Legislature that would have exempted private school and some nontraditional public school students from vaccination requirements.

At the time, Justice, who is a girl’s public school basketball coach and became known across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic for his pro-vaccine stance, said he had to defer to the licensed medical professionals who “overwhelmingly” spoke out in opposition to the legislation.

A faction of the Republican-controlled Legislature has tried for years to no avail to expand exemptions to the state’s school vaccination laws.

Morrisey, who served as West Virginia’s attorney general from 2013 until he was sworn in as governor Monday, said he believes religious exemptions to vaccinations should already be permitted under a 2023 law passed by the state Legislature called the Equal Protection for Religion Act.

The law stipulates that the government can’t “substantially burden” someone’s constitutional right to freedom of religion unless it can prove there is a “compelling interest” to restrict that right.

Morrisey said that law hasn’t “been fully and properly enforced” since it passed.

The process for applying for a vaccine exemption, which is still being finalized, will likely involve parents explaining their religious beliefs in writing to the state Bureau of Public Health, the governor said. He said he also plans to clarify with lawmakers, who return to the Capitol for their 60-day session next month, that religious exemptions are permitted under the state’s vaccine statute.

U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates dipped in 2023 and the proportion of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted in October.

The share of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 3.3%, up from 3% in 2022. Meanwhile, 92.7% of kindergartners got their required shots, which is a little lower than the previous two years.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic the vaccination rate was 95%, the coverage level that medical professionals say makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.

West Virginia previously had some of the highest vaccination rates in the country. A recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on kindergarten vaccination exemptions cited the state as having the lowest exemption rate in the country, and the best vaccination rates for kids that age.

Along with Mississippi, West Virginia is the U.S. state with the worst health outcomes and lowest life expectancy rates.

Leah Willingham, The Associated Press