Nearly a year ago, Democrat TJ Donovan was sworn-in as Vermont’s Attorney General — the first new occupant of that office since 1997.
He says the first year has been “invigorating.”
Donovan, along with a group of mostly Democrat attorney generals around the country, have sued the federal government to block actions taken by the Trump Administration.
“I think what you're seeing is states really asserting themselves and you're seeing this new debate about federalism,” Donovan says. “It's really an exciting time to be an attorney general and it's equally exciting to fight to defend our Vermont values.”
Donovan says that the country is in a time of crisis and with one party controlling Congress and the Presidency, the role of checking federal authority falls to the others.
“It's going to fall to the states to stand up and that's the role of the attorney general — to stand, to be the lawyer of the people,” he says.
Donovan says his top priorities during his second year in office will be to protect civil rights, access to healthcare, the environment and privacy.
“We're leading the fight on making sure that we hold Equifax accountable, making sure that we fight to preserve net neutrality — which is economic development issue for our state — but also making sure that we're protecting Vermonters privacy,” he says.
Donovan says he will run for reelection in 2018.
Listen to the full interview above.
