Oklahoma’s GOP governor opposes sending out-of-state troops to states
that don't welcome them
[October 10, 2025]
By SEAN MURPHY and GEOFF MULVIHILL
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, the
chair of the National Governors Association, said Thursday that he
opposes sending National Guard troops across state borders without the
permission of the state receiving them.
The position from a sitting Republican official posed a rare rebuke of
President Donald Trump’s push to send National Guard troops to cities in
states where Democrats are in charge, including Chicago where Mayor
Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are fighting in court to
try to halt the deployment of Texas Guard members.
The administration is also trying to send California troops into
Portland, Oregon.
Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Stitt, said he supports Trump's effort
to help impose law and order in some cities and to aid federal agents
removing immigrants who have committed crimes, but that National Guard
troops from one state should not be deployed to another over the
objection of the receiving state's governor.
“When it’s governors working together, it’s a very different story, but
this whole situation where one state’s governor is sending their
national Guard troops over the objections of another state’s governor,
that sets a very dangerous precedent," Cave said.
Speaking to The New York Times on Thursday, Stitt said “Oklahomans would
lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma
during the Biden administration.”
Stitt drew one key distinction: While he opposes sending groups across
state lines where they’re not welcomed by the governors, he said that
Trump should have federalized National Guard from Illinois instead to
protect federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. That’s the
approach Trump took over the summer went he sent National Guard to Los
Angeles during protests there.
The National Governors Association, a bipartisan group, has experienced
turmoil, with Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatening to
leave the organization because of its silence over the troop
deployments. The organization has still not taken a stance.
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Kentucky's Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said on Thursday he was
“incredibly disappointed” that the NGA hadn't taken a more forceful
stand in opposition to the Trump administration's deployments.
“In the past, it has always stood up for the powers and the rights
of governors," Beshear said during a news conference in Frankfort,
Kentucky. “And right now, it’s doing nothing as a president is
trying to send National Guard into states over the objection of the
governors and doing so unlawfully.”
He also gave a blistering critique of the Trump administration's
decision to deploy troops into cities over local opposition.
“We don’t militarize our communities,” Beshear said. “It’s one of
the tenets of our very founding. What Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth
are doing is wrong. It is un-American.”
Stitt’s position puts him at odds with the state’s Republican
Attorney General and officials in most other Republican-controlled
states.
Oklahoma’s Gentner Drummond was among 20 Republican attorneys
general who filed a brief Wednesday supporting Trump’s
administration in its legal battle to allow him to deploy Oregon and
California National Guard troops in Portland.
In the filing, they say the president needs to be able to federalize
National Guard and send troops to Oregon so that federal immigration
resources are not diverted there. "Otherwise, states will continue
to bear the costs of nonenforcement of federal immigration laws,”
they said.
Most Republican-controlled state including Oklahoma, have also
requested permission to file similar papers in the Illinois court
case.
The Democratic attorneys general or governors of 24 states also
filed jointly Wednesday to side with California and Oregon.
There’s a similar partisan split over the use of troops in
Washington, D.C.
___
Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press
reporter Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report from Frankfort,
Kentucky.
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