The increased use of state preemption intended to limit local lawmaking across a broad range of policies is a new phenomenon and educating and organizing elected officials, city attorneys and advocates are key to countering its abuse. Only when the national origins, aims and consequences of the rise in state interference are known and preemption is recognized as a deliberate strategy to weaken local democracy, can effective defensive efforts and offensive opportunities to protect and promote local problem solving can be organized and channeled.
Featured Resources
Preemption Primer – “State Interference: The Push to Erode Local Democracy”
Repealing Preemption: Lessons from the 2019 Legislative Session
Public Education Resources
Here are tools advocates can use in public education efforts
Exploring Preemption and Local Authority
Advocates’ Memos – See Full Index of Memos
Building and Executing Your Campaign
State preemption checklist for Local Officials and Advocates
Florida coalition case study presentation
Repeal lessons memo
Digital Ads
In recent years the Local Solutions Support Center has partnered repeatedly with The Campaign Workshop to create message-tested digital advertising toolkits for local partners. Read more about this partnership and view all of the digital ads – plus digital toolkits from 2020 and 2019 – here.
Training and Support
LSSC's virtual training program
The Local Solutions Support Center offers monthly virtual trainings. Through this program, we will provide a deeper dive on specific skills and best practices, the latest preemption-related research and messaging, and opportunities to explore and learn together about how to best counter the misuse of state preemption and strengthen local democracy. See all of the Virtual Training resources here.