Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would destroy fundamental rights and freedoms of working people and their families. We know Trump and far-right Republicans fully intend to enact Project 2025 policy proposals at the federal level if they win this fall because they’re already doing so in states where they control multiple branches of government.
Here are five examples of harmful Project 2025 policies that multiple Republican-controlled states have already enacted:
1. Banning abortion
Project 2025 envisions completely eliminating reproductive rights “in every jurisdiction in America” (read the full details on page 6 in the Project 2025 document). In the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Republican governors and Republican-controlled state legislatures have enacted or begun enforcing total abortion bans in 14 states. In another eight states, they have adopted or reverted to state laws that severely restrict abortion access.
2. Ending protections against hazardous child labor
Project 2025 seeks to eliminate federal prohibitions on hazardous work for children (read how Republicans plan to put children to work in dangerous jobs on page 595 of Project 2025). Versions of this proposal have already been enacted in Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, and West Virginia that have opened the door to employers hiring children for highly hazardous work.
3. Making it harder for workers to unionize
Project 2025 proposes to eliminate the default legal option for workers seeking to form a union—known as “card check”—which says a group of workers can approach their employer to request voluntary recognition once a majority have signed union cards (read more about Project 2025’s anti-union plans on page 603). Three states—Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama—have already passed anti-union legislation denying state economic development funds to any employer who agrees to a card check process to voluntarily recognize a union.
4. Stripping away public employees’ union rights
Project 2025 aims to take away the rights of all public employees to form unions and collectively bargain (read the details of Project 2025’s attack on public sector workers on page 82). Republican lawmakers have ended or severely restricted public employee bargaining rights in Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Most recently, Florida enacted a 2023 anti-union law that is eliminating union contracts covering tens of thousands of state and local government employees.
5. Defunding public schools
Project 2025 proposes making school vouchers universally available in every school district in the country (learn how Project 2025 plans to use your taxes to pay for private and religious schools on page 319). So-called school “vouchers” divert public tax dollars to private and religious schools, and are central to the far-right campaign to defund and destroy public education.
Since 2022, Republican lawmakers in seven states—Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah—passed new voucher programs, while Republicans in 13 states expanded existing programs. This is despite overwhelming evidence that vouchers don’t improve educational outcomes, exacerbate inequality, and reduce funds available for public schools required to serve all families—ultimately benefiting the wealthy at the expense of low-income and rural communities.