Exclusive Sit-Down with Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt
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Just go to investyrefi.com. That's invest, the letter Y, then R-E-F-Y.com or call 877-80-INVEST. I personally invest my own money with Y Refi. I recommend you give it a serious look for your future. Breaking Battlegrounds is back and today we're with Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt. This is your second term. What have you learned in your second term that you didn't know the first term?

It's great to be a second-term governor, not have an election. We've got two term limits in Oklahoma, so I am through and can't run again. And so there's a lot of freedom. There's a lot of freedom. I bet you sleep a little bit better at night knowing that. You don't have to worry about doing X amount of fundraisers or people asking for XYZ or a little more, like you said, freedom. Yeah, a little bit more freedom and probably a little bit more –

control of your schedule because before I just always I was all over the state speaking. I never wanted to turn a speaking engagement down and so now can be a little bit more strategic with our policies what we want to get done and instead of you know speaking at every group that asked me which is can be just a lot to do in a state. Well we're here at the gathering Eric Erickson's gathering and he's had some great guests you being one talking later this afternoon.

Governor Ducey said what COVID showed us is that the Democrats are secretively authoritarians. So true. That's true, isn't it? Yeah. You know, that was tough for all leaders. I mean, in any kind of business or anything, what we were having to deal with, and it was an unknown. But basically, the way our approach in Oklahoma, I just said, listen, we're not going to put our Constitution in the attic just because somebody in Washington, D.C. tells us to.

And they were trying to shut everything down. I was one of the few governors in the country that refused to do a mask mandate statewide. And my theory was, guys, if you want to wear a mask, do it. This is we believe in freedoms. And I said, but I'm not going to make a farmer in western Oklahoma a criminal because they're choosing not to or for whatever reason they don't want to. And so that became such a political hotbed, as you remember. I mean, people forget about that education.

Education showed us that kids need to be in school. In Oklahoma, we had all of our schools open and you saw some states shutting schools down.

And to me, I was like, man, this is the height of hypocrisy. When these, my fellow governors on the other side of the aisle, had their kids in private schools, in person, but yet it was saying it's not safe to go to public schools in Oklahoma or in your state. Did you ask them about that? I mean, did you ever, I mean, I'm sure even though they're on the other side of the aisle, I'm sure there's some you get along with. You have a friendly relationship. Absolutely, yeah. Did you ask them, say, how do you differ? I don't know.

I mean, I tried to, they don't want to answer that question. And they went out of their way to send their children to private schools. A hundred percent. I mean, yeah. Or they were doing, you know, private tutoring and, and I'm telling you, I mean, what shaped my belief in that whole thing? I'd have single moms call my office and they would say, governor, what am I supposed to do? Because one of our large school districts in the inner city,

was closed down and they were being led by the unions. They were more focused on the unions and what was good for them instead of what's good for the kids. But it would break your heart. These parents would say, Governor, my first grader is not learning how to read on Zoom. I have to go to work during the day. We don't have good Internet at home. And yet 98 percent of the other schools around us were open. And it would just break your heart. And I knew my kids were in school the whole time.

So the kids that could least afford it in some of our poorest school districts in America, and we're seeing the effects of that, and they're getting further and further behind. And so we passed the largest best school choice bill in the country. And now that single mom or that person without resources now has school choice in the state of Oklahoma.

And I tell people, rich people already have school choice. Always have. They've always had. Always have. If their kid was in a bad situation or getting into gangs or drugs or they didn't like what was happening or low ACT scores, they're going to move school districts. They're going to pull their kids to a private school. I just gave that to that single mom that just was crying, telling me my first grader is getting behind and there's nothing I can do about it. And we've got that fixed for her now. What year did that pass in Oklahoma?

We passed it in 2023. So my question for you is this, without COVID, would that ever have passed in Oklahoma? You know, it would have been much, much more difficult. But it opened eyes to parents. I heard from numerous fathers, it wasn't necessarily mothers, who were home working remotely. And they said, they're in there and they're hearing their kid on Zoom. And they walked in like, what on earth is being taught here? Yeah.

And it really sort of woke up what I would call the happy middle class parent who gave their local school an A or B. And what I always found, I worked in the school choice system years ago, and what I always found is you pull them, and parents would give their local school an A or B, but the rest of the state are C or D. That's right. And then all of a sudden they sound like, no, maybe our school is a C or D. It was an amazing thing. What else –

Did we learn from COVID about government? Do you feel that you're able to go and bring into policy? Yeah. Well, the last point on the school choice issue, I want people to know as governor, as the Republican governor of Oklahoma,

I have put more money in public education in my first five years than they did for 25 years before I got here. And get no credit for it. And we get no credit. No. Because I know that 80% of the kids go to public schools. And so we've given huge teacher pay ranges. I come from the business world and you have to pay market. So I'm making sure we recruit the best and brightest and we pay those teachers. We love our school teachers in Oklahoma. But here's the deal.

And if your rural school is awesome, stay with it. We're going to keep funding it. We're going to keep, you know, but if you're in an inner city school and it's failing, it's up and you've got no options. Why in the world do some liberals try to keep people stuck in that failing system? We just, all we did was created options. And we know that more options is a free market principle that makes everybody better. You've got to go compete. And that's just what we believe in Oklahoma. It's got to be about you can do's.

It's certainly not about children. That's exactly what we think. Yeah, that's right. The other thing we learned in COVID, I mean, if you remember, we had some folks that were pushing an agenda to shut all the businesses down, right? Correct. Out of the name of public health.

This is an unessential business. This is essential. This is non-essential. That was all hogwash to us in Oklahoma. There's no such thing as a non-essential business. That's where you get your paycheck or that's where you've invested your capital. So we kept everything open in Oklahoma. But I just saw, you know, it was so quickly. What else did we learn? I mean, so quickly, just the momentum and group think. And you were almost...

You were an outcast if you said anything different. Well, you wanted to kill grandma. That's exactly right. Yeah, grandma was dead. You're walking in, she's dead. I know. And the amount of people that missed time

with relatives and grandparents and funerals. It stuns me. You see it all the time still. And they're bitter about it. That's right. That's right. And in hospitals, not letting people hold the hand of their loved one and having to Zoom with them. I mean, it was, I think historians are going to look back on that period and just say, what in the world happened to the Americans? You know, how did we get in this group think all of a sudden? But really it was, you know, our side of the aisle believes in free speech. And I

I don't begrudge you if you want to wear a mask or if you want to get 25 vaccines. Absolutely not. I just, I had to sue our federal government to protect my national guard from forcing them to get kicked out of the national guard. If they didn't, you know, adhere to this untested, um, you know, rush to market vaccine. I'm not against the, the, if you want to take a vaccine, if you have, if you feel like that's right for you, but yeah,

We're in the world that we lose our freedoms that we couldn't choose what type of medicine we can take or not. And that's where I'm just like, this is getting crazy. Kamala Harris, if she gets elected.

How does that affect the energy policies, the energy jobs coming out of Oklahoma? Well, I'm glad you bring that up. I mean, well, first off, I just want all your listeners to understand that we have to have an affordable, reliable energy grid. So when you plug in your Tesla or your cell phone, where does that energy come from? It's important that we educate people. Right. And it comes from in Oklahoma. I'll tell you Oklahoma story.

We're number six in oil production in the country. We're number five in natural gas production. And we're number three in electricity generated by wind. People don't realize that. We're one of only four states that can say this, that over 45% of our energy comes from renewables. So Oklahoma, we take an all of the above approach. We believe, again, in free markets, capitalism, letting American innovation meet the needs of Americans.

What's so disappointing about the Biden-Harris administration is they're coming in and trying to put their thumbs on the scale, and they're trying to say, oh, you can't use a gas stove. We want to ban natural gas. We want to ban combustion engines. We're going to force you to use EVs. And this is just a bunch of nonsense, number one.

But what they don't realize is it actually is crushing the poor and the middle class. The ones affected the most by it. A hundred percent. I mean, the rich people, the people that are running the big companies, they're going to be able to afford it.

But it also hurts our allies. People don't realize when we ban and this is what the Biden and Harris administration has done, they've banned natural gas, new exports. Well, let me tell you something. I have an international strategy. I've met with 60 ambassadors. Japan needs natural gas. Our European friends need natural gas. And when we don't supply it to them, they're driven into the arms of Russia.

and people that don't like us very much and our adversaries and Iran because they have to heat their homes and their businesses. Why is that a shocker to people? And so we need to be supplying and we need to be energy independent. It's a national security issue. And for them to kind of to force this stuff on the American people, it's just it's the biggest scam there is. Governor, there's a lot of talk about the border.

You're not a border states, but I'm sure you're affected by the border crisis. How has it affected Oklahoma and the citizens of Oklahoma? Yeah. So as a Republican governor, we have banded together. We have put a 10-point plan that we sent to President Biden. We've been down to the border. I've sent troops to the border. We're supporting Governor Abbott, Governor Ducey when he was governor of Arizona. And every state is a border state.

Think about the millions and millions of people that are here illegally, and now they have access to all of our services. As US citizens, it doesn't matter if you're Republican or Democrat,

you should be frightened by this how can we afford the medical coverage the housing coverage all the benefits that are supposed to be provided as a safety net for the american citizens and the workers that have been here and are born here how can we open up our borders and let that happen right so that's number one number two um

the people that are coming across are on the terrorist watch list. We've got about 52,000 Chinese nationals of very young male that have come through. We're really asking ourselves questions like who's coming through. It's not just all a migrant worker trying to get a better life. If you want a better, if you want to chase the American dream, we need to have a great immigration policy. And that's totally separate than border security.

And I want to make sure that that is. Everybody tries to kind of conflate that, but we have to have a strong border and President Trump will get us there day one in office. Well, I think one thing people don't understand who say, well, these people are trying to escape whatever catastrophe. And there's a lot of catastrophes. You're a religious man. Our heart yearns and aches for them, right? But I have found personally, I have helped fund and sponsor for people to get citizenship and they have.

The pride they take in America versus some people I know who have not gone through the process, it's night and day.

And you could be a liberal or you could be a conservative, but you still want people coming to the country who take pride in the country. That's right. And I don't understand why that's a difficult concept for them to understand. I mean, why do you think they don't care about this? You think it's like, you know, the conservative conspiracy right now, it's all about votes. It's about census. And I'm sure there's some of that. But why do you think that is? Where's the disconnect with them in reality?

You know, I mean, I think out of sight, out of mind, you know, the quote unquote bleeding heart liberal to your point, you know, these people are just searching for a better life. So that may be part of it, but it's got to be, it's got to be related to votes. It's got to be related to, Hey, we're going to have more people that are going to vote. We think if we give, give someone, you know, a benefit, then they're going to vote for us.

I think that's literally what they believe. President Trump's doing fantastic with the Hispanic community. Hispanic community overwhelmingly elected me. I have a great relationship with the Hispanic community because they're here, they're working, they're paying taxes, they're part of the American dream. We have no problem with that.

And I've actually set up a task force to study how can the states control the visa process and immigration process better. Oh, I love that. That's fantastic. Because why don't we go to the feds? Like, isn't it better that you come to the governors to say, here's an employer that needs employees. Here's an employee that needs a job and wants to pay taxes and wants to be part of the American dream. Let's match them up in a state.

Instead of having to go through the feds and take five, 10 years. You would think someone like Newsom be all over that. Yeah. Silicon Valley. Right. That's, that's common sense. Common sense. Getting out of college. I love this buddy of mine from Ireland, his wife, two kids. They've got a green card trying to get their U S citizenship. He started a business in America. Great guy. And it's just taken 10 years.

That's just, it's insane. It's insane. You graduate from University of Oklahoma or you want to go into the agricultural business or I have people in construction that need more workers. I should be able to match them up. But we, but it hasn't, we have to know who's coming through our southern border. 100%. And so to me, we're just either talking beside each other or through each other or they literally don't want to do what's right for them.

You bring up small business in the Hispanic community. So Paulie and I've seen the Hispanic community is the only one that still believes the American dream with the majority. You started a business with a computer and a thousand bucks. Do you feel you could do that today?

You know, people ask me that. I'm an optimistic guy. So I think, you know, Kevin's getting out of college today or the kid getting out of college today. Anything is possible in America. But I'll tell you this, the democratic policies of more government, more regulation, it crushes the middle class. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the big businesses can, you know, they can handle more regulation.

but it really does affect the entrepreneur, the guy starting at the bottom and coming up. I would hate to say it's over because I don't believe that, but we have to believe in free market principles because that's what raises everybody to new levels. Well, it's, you know, there's the old line, knock on wood, it's the first million. The first million is the hardest, right? Boone Pickens says the first billion is the hardest. Yeah, yeah. But,

But we'll go first million for us middle class folks, right? So the first million is the hardest, right? What can government, what are regulations being a business person and governor? What are things you see the government should get out of the way of

So that college graduate can start with a thousand bucks in a computer and build the next great business. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's, it's tons of stuff. I mean, there's, there's, there's workers comp reform. There's tort reform. I mean, in the healthcare side, did you know that doctors are not allowed to start hospitals and own hospitals because of Obamacare? Yes. Anything that's grandfathered in is grandfathered in. And I have groups of doctors that says, Hey,

We know how to take care of patients. Why can't we do this? So this is just more regulation. We need more competition, right? Right. We need people to do things better. So the doctors in Oklahoma, when you get sued, what was the, oh, I had a little round table with some business owners in Oklahoma just this week and thousand person employee manufacturer. She's in Tulsa.

Great lady, manufacturing. And she said, hey, I would love to have a daycare in my facility for all of my employees. But you know why I can't? Because we get sued. The liability is too great. You have litigators and litigious attorneys just trying to get their pounds of flesh out of business owners. And that's wrong. I mean, 100%. 100%.

And so I set up business courts this year in Oklahoma because I want businesses to know that we are the most business friendly state in the country. And so if a business gets sued, it goes to a special judge, a special court system, and it's a business court.

And because I saw what happened to President Trump's business, it doesn't matter if it's President Trump's or President Biden's business. What New York State did in this in this, you know, overly zealous district attorney who's really for political purposes weaponizing his office. Right.

I can't think of anything more shameful or more harmful to our democracy than when you start using your office to take out political opponents. And that's exactly what they did in New York. And it's wrong and it's not going to happen in Oklahoma. Texas did this. You saw Delaware, they're stumbling a little bit.

Elon pulled out of Delaware because the court said, oh, well, you're making too much money. Which is not their responsibility. It's not their responsibility. That was a deal that was struck with Elon and his shareholders when it was called stock options, when the stock was worth this. And I made a deal. And just because he grew and made a trillion dollars, they said, well, you really are getting too much money.

Well, that is not a free market system when a court can come in and what's the next court going to say? Well, we don't like you're making too much money or you're making too much money. Let's redistribute this. That's called communism when I grew up.

And we don't believe in socialism. We don't believe in lying to the next generation, telling them that, hey, there's such thing as equal outcomes. There's no such thing as equal outcomes. But guess what? We want equal opportunities. And we want you to go get an education, work your tail off, say yes, sir, no, sir. And you go work hard and the American dream is alive and well in our state. Two more questions before we end. You have six kids. Yeah. How has that opportunity made you a better governor?

Oh, man. Well, I've got my 10-year-old. My youngest is with me on this trip. So I try to take a kid with me. Does he find it interesting? Or is he like, Dad, I love being with you. Is there a baseball game or something we can do? Well, he's at the swimming pool right now. So he's truly 10. He's truly 10. We went to the Coca-Cola Museum together this morning.

and went to the aquarium. And, and so just, so I'm just trying to be a dad and, and that's what people don't realize about our politicians is, is I'm a father and I'm a husband and, and, and I put God first, then my family and then my job. And I think you need to keep your priorities right. And yes, I'm governor and it's an important job, but my most important job is to be, you know, is, is to be, you know,

a son to my heavenly father and then the husband of my wife and then a father to my kids. Final question. So the good Lord gives us experiences sort of as a refining stone to make us better people. Seven years ago, you were elected. Six years ago, you're elected governor. What is a quality that you have become better at, more Christ-like at after six years as governor?

Oh, man. You know, I've just, I've learned so much. I think I've learned to be probably a better teammate because, you know, in business, you're the CEO and, you know, you're rolling and you have to be, and not that you're not very collaborative in business and working with your team and selling your ideas to move forward, but it's different. In government, you certainly have to work with the legislature and work with the team and come up with ideas there.

But just the service mentality. I've never really been in service like this to the state. And I tell people that if we don't have people elected that are here for the right reasons and not trying to make it a stepping stone, you know,

Lord help us because when you're, when you're just doing what's right for your donors or what's right for the special interest, um, that's why people hate their politicians. Right. But when they see you doing the right thing and it's hard and standing up and saying no, um, then, then they just respect you that much more. And,

And I tell people that I'm always going to focus on the next generation, not the next election. And I think that's a big thing that we've learned is our founding fathers were so critical. I mean, I think about George Washington.

And do you not think he could have went and cut a deal with the king? 100%. And, and been, you know, and been the richest guy in the world. And he had was already the richest landowner. He puts it all on the line for a principle that says, Hey, you know, we want to be a free people. We want to self govern ourself. We want to, we want to, we want to have an opportunity to, to,

to make something of ourself regardless of who our parents were. And they were coming from a system that was, you know, it was hard to step and break through those socioeconomic boundaries that you might have been born in. That's the great thing about America. That's what's so attractive to our state

or to our country, and it's alive and well. And when we lose that with over-regulation, shame on us, because I will stand up and defend free markets and individual liberties as long as I'm governor and as long as I'm a citizen of this country.

Well, we had the author on You Always Remember Your First about George Washington. She called it You Always Remember Your First. Yeah. And she said one of the surprising thing was how hurt he was by the criticisms. And I think a lot of times people don't realize that you're humans, that you have families, you're trying your best. You don't think you're perfect. Yeah. But we appreciate your service, Governor. Thank you so much for what you do. Thank you so much. It's an honor to serve my state. Thank you for coming.