san francisco <u+2014> the west coast has long prided itself as an engine for reinvention and progressive ideals, distinct from the rest of the country. but after tuesday<u+2019>s election, the states bordering the pacific ocean feel increasingly like an island unto its own. while large parts of the american electoral map, particularly in the industrial rust belt, turned more republican in tuesday<u+2019>s election , california went more democratic, with 61.5 percent of voters choosing hillary clinton , the highest percentage for a democratic presidential nominee since the re-election of president franklin d. roosevelt in 1936. on social policies, the election made the rockies look more like a border than a mountain range. in a raft of ballot measures, voters embraced causes like bilingual education, stricter gun control and taxes on sugary drinks. amid donald j. trump<u+2019>s promises to slash taxes, voters in the west decided the opposite, raising taxes and voting to pour billions of dollars into schools and transportation. and the entire west coast has legalized marijuana , now that california joined washington and oregon. while there have been gestures of conciliation in washington toward mr. trump, political leaders in the west were defiant. gavin newsom, the lieutenant governor of california, said the election inspired him to team up with <u+201c>enlightened<u+201d> leaders in the west to <u+201c>push back aggressively<u+201d> against policies on immigration and the environment from the future trump administration. <u+201c>we are a nation state,<u+201d> mr. newsom said, referring to the state<u+2019>s diversity and vast, dynamic economy. <u+201c>in so many ways, we are america,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>but we are just ahead of the curve.<u+201d> the election of mr. trump prompted street protesters in the liberal bastions of california to call for secession from the union <u+2014> and a promise from shervin pishevar, a silicon valley investor, to fund a #calexit campaign , as it has become known on social media. a petition for oregon to secede was filed with the oregon secretary of state<u+2019>s office on thursday, allowing backers to start gathering signatures. the notion of west coast states leaving the united states is fanciful and often tongue-in-cheek. but it reflects a sentiment here that after mr. trump<u+2019>s unexpected victory on tuesday, the west increasingly sees itself as separate <u+2014> a place of innovation, economic dynamism and a belief that government can be an agent of change. abby ginzberg, a documentary filmmaker who lives in albany, calif., said she felt both deflated by the result but somewhat insulated from its consequences. <u+201c>right now, i am depressed and upset and aware we live in a bubble,<u+201d> she said. <u+201c>thank god for the bubble!<u+201d> in oregon and washington, mrs. clinton<u+2019>s margin of victory was close to president obama<u+2019>s four years ago. she received about 73 percent of the vote in oregon<u+2019>s biggest urban county, multnomah, which includes the portland area <u+2014> with most of the votes counted in an all-mail election. in washington, the concentrations of blue intensified from the last presidential election. in king county, which includes seattle and is the most populous in the state, mrs. clinton did better than mr. obama, with nearly three out of four residents voting for her, compared with 69 percent for mr. obama in 2012. mayor ed murray of seattle, a democrat, described his city in recent days as almost like a fortress under siege, scanning for attack on the ramparts. fighting, he said <u+2014> in defense or offense <u+2014> seems inevitable. <u+201c>this country has elected a president who, during the campaign, demonstrated outright misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, nationalism, racism and authoritarian tendencies,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>we also have to challenge what we believe is wrong.<u+201d> mr. murray, the city<u+2019>s first openly gay mayor, said he believed mr. trump, based on his comments as a candidate, could also aim to <u+201c>trim back<u+201d> gains that places like seattle have made in gay rights. <u+201c>let me tell you, this city is committed that we will not lose the things that we have gained, the rings that we wear on our fingers,<u+201d> the mayor said. not every result was so liberal. californians voted to keep the death penalty, and some inland counties clearly supported the trump candidacy. still, one reason mr. trump<u+2019>s populist revolt bypassed the west is that the economic landscape did not reflect decades of decay and job losses. yes, there are areas of anger and strain, from the high-desert ranches of eastern oregon to coal towns in northwestern colorado to strawberry farms in the central valley of california to steel towns struggling to reinvent themselves. but there are also new solar and wind farms , no-vacancy tourist towns and cities from denver to san jose, calif., to seattle that are buzzing with businesses, construction cranes and swarms of new residents. <u+201c>places like colorado, we have a robust economy,<u+201d> said representative diana degette, a democrat who represents the denver area. <u+201c>what you see in the west is the development of a new economy that they<u+2019>re not seeing the midwest and the south.<u+201d> over all, colorado sided narrowly with the democrats on tuesday, but the state embraced liberal ballot measures like a rise in minimum wage and a law allowing medical assistance in dying for terminally ill people. voters rejected a single-payer health care system, however. like states across the nation, california is unsure to what extent mr. trump<u+2019>s promises to slash government programs such as the affordable care act will be carried out. willie brown, the former mayor of san francisco and for decades a major player in state democratic party politics, said he did not believe california would be singled out for its support of mrs. clinton. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t think there will be a trump jihad on california,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>he<u+2019>s not so much into policy. he<u+2019>s into saying what he thinks people want to hear.<u+201d> kevin de le<u+00f3>n, senate president pro tem of california, said that his staff was not taking any chances and had begun a <u+201c>comprehensive review<u+201d> of all federal programs that had an impact on california, and that it was looking at the impact that <u+201c>draconian cuts<u+201d> would have. kamala harris, california<u+2019>s newly elected senator and a democrat, said on thursday that she would fight to protect immigrants and push back against mr. trump<u+2019>s proposed policies. some mayors in the west vowed to push ahead with plans to protect salmon, to limit greenhouse gases, to feed undocumented immigrants and to outlaw discrimination against gay and transgender residents. <u+201c>our agenda here in colorado, our agenda here in denver, does not change,<u+201d> said michael b. hancock, the mayor of denver. <u+201c>we<u+2019>re trying to design policies that are more inclusive. states like colorado, cities like denver, are ahead of the curve. we<u+2019>re trying to forge a future where we say, <u+2018>how do we not leave people behind?<u+2019><u+201d> other west coast political leaders said they did not necessarily envision a war with the trump administration and its allies but more a kind of competition for hearts and minds. pramila jayapal, a democrat who was elected to her first term in congress on tuesday representing part of seattle, said that whispers of what might be called west coast values <u+2014> particularly a higher minimum wage <u+2014> found echoes on tuesday in states like arizona that also voted for mr. trump. west coast states, she said, should look for those allies and cultivate them. voters in colorado, maine and washington state also voted to raise their minimum wages. <u+201c>i absolutely believe that we can pull people toward this model,<u+201d> said ms. jayapal, the first indian-american woman to serve in congress. <u+201c>i think we are showing how to do things <u+2014> we passed gun control legislation for the second time in three years on the ballot. we passed a statewide minimum-wage increase, the highest in the country.<u+201d> on thursday, as mr. trump visited the white house for the first time as president-elect, city officials in portland, ore., and environmental activists met to discuss a restriction on export terminals for coal, oil and other fossil fuels. <u+201c>regardless of whether we have climate deniers in charge at the national government, it doesn<u+2019>t change the facts,<u+201d> said mayor charlie hales of portland. he said he was <u+201c>heartsick<u+201d> over the election, calling it a <u+201c>national catastrophe.<u+201d> <u+201c>rivers flood. droughts persist. we don<u+2019>t have the luxury of living in an ideological bubble on this,<u+201d> he said. the obama years had given portland a close partner in washington. that relationship could be upended if mr. trump follows through on promises to cut off all federal funding for cities deemed to be <u+201c>sanctuary cities<u+201d> for undocumented immigrants. federal money flows to everything from rail lines to crime fighting to school lunch programs for poor children. <u+201c>we<u+2019>ve built a better place, and the world is beating a path to our door,<u+201d> mr. hales said. <u+201c>we<u+2019>ll figure out how to feed people with or without the federal government<u+2019>s help.<u+201d> in other liberal towns across the west, students joined protests against mr. trump, chanting what has now become a familiar motto, <u+201c>not our president.<u+201d> in portland, some of the protests turned violent on thursday night. in boulder, colo., mrs. clinton had a bigger win than mr. obama four years earlier. high school students streamed out of classes on wednesday afternoon there to protest the election results, as they have in a several secondary schools across the west. on the pedestrian pearl street mall in boulder, heidi ames, 41, kept a lonely vigil with a sign that said, <u+201c>trump is not my president.<u+201d> <u+201c>there are a lot of shocked and depressed people right now,<u+201d> she said. <u+201c>i wanted to show other liberal people i<u+2019>m doing something. i<u+2019>m not just talking on facebook.<u+201d> on the day after the election, mr. de le<u+00f3>n, of the california senate, sent out a statement written with a colleague in the legislature that said the victory of mr. trump made them feel like <u+201c>strangers in a foreign land.<u+201d> in an interview on thursday, mr. de le<u+00f3>n said he felt a mix of disillusionment and defiance. <u+201c>california has long set an example for other states to follow,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>we are not going to allow one election to reverse generations of progress.<u+201d> thomas fuller reported from san francisco, jack healy from denver, and kirk johnson from seattle. a version of this article appears in print on november 12, 2016, on page a1 of the new york edition with the headline: pacific coast remains blue in a red tide. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
amid tide of red on electoral map, west coast stays defiantly blue
thomas fuller jack healy kirk johnson