In ways both large and small, the Democrats elected by Coloradans in November are pushing back against the Trump administration, including its policies on sexual misconduct, reproductive rights, climate change, voting rights and immigration.

These maneuvers come on the heels of a decisive election in which candidates and liberal activists invoked the name of the president to turn the state blue, handing Democrats control of all of Colorado’s statewide offices and both chambers of the state legislature.

Colorado’s new attorney general campaigned on being a check to the White House, and our new secretary of state promised she would make voter registration even easier. Meanwhile, in the statehouse, new and returning Democratic lawmakers are crafting bills that seek to preempt potential federal changes to abortion laws and how sexual assaults on campus are handled.

Sexual misconduct on campus

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a new set of proposed rules in November for colleges to use in handling allegations of sexual harassment or assault.

DeVos characterized her Title IX overhaul as a fix for a “failed” and “shameful” system that was biased against the accused, but Democrats and victims’ rights advocates vehemently disagreed.

The rules would guarantee both parties the right to cross-examination, limit investigations to those that happen on campus or during campus programs and activities, and require assaults to be reported to designated administrators.

State Sen. Faith Winter, D-Westminster, told The Denver Post she thinks DeVos’ proposed rules would distress victims and discourage them from reporting. She wants Colorado’s campuses to follow a different set of rules.

SB19-007 would prohibit cross-examination, require universities to investigate claims that stem from certain off-campus events, prohibit retaliation, and set the standard of proof of wrongdoing at a “preponderance of the evidence.” It would also require institutions of higher education to adopt and periodically review their own sexual misconduct policies.

It’s possible, Winter said, that the federal government would see these regulations as conflicting with their own interpretation of Title IX.

“Then we get to have that conversation in the courts should the federal government decide to take action,” Winter said. “Many of the federal rules are a basement, and we will be going above that for better standards.”

Winter has worked on this bill for a few years, and said many colleges and universities already follow these rules.

“I think we’re saying in Colorado right now universities are doing a good job,” Winter said. “We want to continue doing a good job and, given national trends, we need to take a stand as a state and say this is a Colorado-based solution to protect women.”

Sen. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, opposes barring lawyers for accused students from speaking during proceedings.

“That doesn’t seem fair or appropriate,” Gardner said. “I know my colleagues are concerned an attorney for the accused would browbeat a victim, and I get that. I’m willing to have controls on cross-examination.”

But he also had a few criticisms of DeVos’ proposed rules.

“I think they were made in good faith,” Gardner said, “but in a couple of places they probably went further for the accused. … We’ve got to find the right balance. It’s important that we do.”

Climate change

Back in 2012, then-President Barack Obama finalized an agreement with the auto industry to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by raising the number of miles per gallon the Environmental Protection Agency requires all vehicles get on average. It’s called the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard, and everyone agreed to nearly double the fuel economy of vehicles by 2025.

But then, in the spring of 2018, President Donald Trump and then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced plans to roll them back.

However, Republican state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman’s successor, Democrat Phil Weiser, takes a very different view of the standards.

“The federal effort to repeal the CAFE mileage standards really to me is an appalling decision,” he said.

Weiser agrees with the attorneys general in nearly 20 states who are suing the EPA, saying the agency “arbitrarily reversed course” on the CAFE standards.

Colorado hasn’t joined the lawsuit yet, but Weiser said he expects the decision to be overturned, “and Colorado will be a part of it.”

U.S. Census

Ditto the U.S. Commerce Department’s effort to ask a question about American citizenship in the 2020 Census.

Immigration advocates say the president is weaponizing the census, and they worry the question could cause an undercount of people in immigrant communities. The administration, on the other hand, argues that it has the right to ask the question and believes it is an important tool for election security.

“It was blatantly motivated by Steve Bannon,” Weiser said. “We will join that case, and we will win.”

Birth control and abortion

Weiser might also add Colorado to two other federal lawsuits that challenge the Trump administration’s expansion of birth control exemptions in employer health insurance plans.

Basically, the administration wants to let certain nonprofit groups, for-profit companies and universities opt out of the Affordable Care Act requirement to cover contraception.

“These rules would undermine access to birth control as provided by the Affordable Care Act,” Weiser said. “I believe those rules are not justified by the law; they are a threat to the rule of law; and they hurt Coloradans who depend on this access to birth control.”

Inside the statehouse, NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado is working with Democratic lawmakers to codify access to abortion in Colorado’s statutes in case Roe vs. Wade, the federal court case that legalized abortion nationwide, is ever overturned, spokesperson Laura Chapin said.

Presidential elections

Trump didn’t win the national popular vote in 2016, but he became president by winning a majority of votes from the Electoral College.

Every state gets a set number of votes in the college based on the number of seats it holds in Congress, and a presidential candidate needs 270 votes to win. But some politicians — including Colorado state Sen. Mike Foote — want to change that.

Foote is running a bill in the 2019 session that would give Colorado’s nine electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote if — and only if — enough states join the interstate compact that their collective electoral college votes are enough to pick a winner.

Voter registration

Colorado’s Democratic new secretary of state, Jena Griswold, told The Denver Post she sees one of her mandates as expanding the number of registered voters across the state.

The Centennial State already is a leader when it comes to voter registration, allowing residents to register on Election Day and mail in their ballots. But Griswold says we could do more. She is considering extending polling hours on Election Day and offering voter registration at Colorado’s Medicaid and health exchange offices.

“It’s a natural place to expand,” she said. “They’re already collecting information that’s compatible with registering someone to vote.”