STITT: You know, you had… It’s so ridiculous that we’re so politicized. But every single Democrat — I believe maybe two Democrats — in our legislature voted against it. All of them voted for it. All the rest of the Democrats voted against this bill that the legislature put on my desk. And we have a majority Republican conservative legislature in Oklahoma. So every one of the Republicans voted to say, “Yeah, this is nonsense.” I think 95% of citizens believe in traditional family values, and so to allow somebody to harm their child or to permanently change something… I mean, we can have the conversation. I’m happy to talk about if you’re an adult and you’re 18 or 19 or 20 and you want to do something on your own dime, but for the state to pay for this for a minor, we’re just not going to tolerate it in Oklahoma.
CLAY: How crazy is it to you? Let’s just be honest. Pretend you’re not the governor, right? You’re a dad; I’m a dad. How crazy is it to you — your kids are young — that Democrats would make their entire party position that this should be able to occur?
STITT: (sigh) I tell people just privately before, this would make our grandparents roll over in their graves thinking about this. This is the most unbelievable thing ever. And I think that the Democrats have gone so far left and made this part of their platform and the hill to die on, and they’re losing the Hispanics. You know, a lot of the Hispanics, African-Americans, the Pakistanis, the Asians in Oklahoma, they constantly are reaching out to me, just saying, “What in the world is happening? I voted Democrat before, but I can’t stand for this. We’re fathers. We want to protect young people,” like you said, minors can’t… We don’t give them a driver’s license, don’t give them a car at 12 or 14 and say, “Be responsible,” but we’re going to let them alter their lives and sterilize them?
CLAY: We don’t let them buy beer until they’re 21 and we let them cut their genitals off at 14? I mean, I don’t even understand how this is remotely… First of all, I think it’s child abuse. But the idea that this would be a Democrat platform is truly insane to me.
STITT: Yeah, well, you’re exactly right, and they’re losing. The far extremists are losing this. This isn’t about attacking any one person. This is about protecting young people. This is about there’s a lot of things that… You know, your mind and your frontal lobe are not fully developed until you’re in your twenties, and so to allow people to do life-altering change and let parents… I agree with you. I think it’s child abuse and we took the first step to ban it in Oklahoma.
BUCK: We’re speaking to Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma. Governor, you have spent time down at the border. You’ve seen the lawlessness and the chaos and the impact on border communities firsthand. I just saw yesterday the official fiscal year count for got-aways. I want to say it was between 600,000 and 800,000, which is in addition to the 5 million people who have entered illegally on the full two years of Biden’s time in office or whatever it is, year and change going on two years. What does it mean for your state? What are the impacts that you’re seeing? And just also, have you ever seen a border that is this wide open before?
STITT: You know, I haven’t. It was it’ll be one year ago tomorrow that myself and ten other governors, we went down to the border with Governor Abbott in McLean, Texas, and held a press conference. We released a ten-point plan. Prior to that, 26 governors asked Biden — sent President Biden a letter asking — for a meeting, and crickets. Nothing. Can you imagine over half of your customers or half of your employees wanting a meeting with the boss and he won’t even respond? So we released a ten-point plan. You know, we have to have a Remain-in-Mexico policy, and that would change everything.
Because right now you’re free to be released into the U.S. if you just touch the border. And oh, by the way, here’s a piece of paper. Show back up in two years at a court date. It’s just nonsense. It’s creating the migration. And now $20 billion is the estimate that this is costing taxpayers from open border, the cost to taxpayers from illegal immigration. They’re just pouring across. But in Oklahoma, specifically, fentanyl is the leading cause of death. I think that’s across America now. We know those drugs are coming through the southern border. Then you talk about terrorists, and you talk about all the getaways. We have to have strong borders and I also want to say this. This is totally different than an attack on the Hispanic community. We have a fantastic, hard-working Hispanic community in Oklahoma, but we have to have strong borders. We have to know who’s coming through our borders. We need correct immigration policy.
CLAY: Governor, this is shifting gears a little bit. I know you’re a big Oklahoma State fan. Oklahoma is leaving to go to the SEC. One of the great rivalries in all of sports, certainly college football, is Bedlam in your state. It appears it’s going to be coming to an end. Can you do anything as governor to try to keep that rivalry going?
STITT: (sigh) Man, we would love to. You’re right. Bedlam is a huge deal every year. We play that game at Thanksgiving and so we hope so. I’m talking to the legislature, the university president, to see what we can do, and it’s complicated when they go to different conferences, and having a non-conference game with a with another team is going to be difficult. But I’m going to be down in Texas on Saturday flipping a coin with Governor Abbott. The Red River Rivalry is a big one, OU-Texas. That rivalry will continue because they’re both going to be moving conferences together, but I hope we can do something to keep it going.
BUCK: Governor we were just talking about the migration to Florida before and the migration that has been going on to Texas, particularly from the coast, from the New York area and from California, has been ongoing for years. What kind of inflows to your state of Oklahoma are you seeing? And for anyone who’s wondering what policies either Florida and Texas have enacted successfully, what are the ones that you’re also doing in Oklahoma? I mean, we’d like to see sort of the spreading of good policies and ideas to all states with red governors.
STITT: Oh, well, first off, not per capita but true numbers, Oklahoma’s 11th in the country right now in migration. So, people are waking up to our pro-freedom, pro-business policies, traditional family values. We’ve got the cheapest electricity to the consumer and businesses. So, manufacturing people are coming, because we’ve got an all-of-the-above energy approach. I cut taxes last year for every single business, every single Oklahoman. So just amazing things. Our regulatory environment in Oklahoma is so much better than the coast.
I’m a businessman that became governor four years ago — I’d never been in politics — and so I bring that business perspective that we want our regulatory bodies working with industry. We never played gotcha. We’re clear with the rules, but we let businesses go compete against each other, and that’s why people are flooding here because of that. But, yeah, we’re seeing the same kind of migration. I kind of joke, though, that if you move here from California, I had to wait 18 years to vote, so they should have to wait 18 years to vote here, too, so.
CLAY: (laughing) Governor, we talked to start the show about everything going on with the energy policy. You were just talking about the impact certainly that energy has in Oklahoma. You’re right there by Texas. When you see that OPEC is diminishing their oil production by 2 million barrels, and certainly you live in a region where you guys have produced a lot of oil and gas over the years. How much of a disaster is Joe Biden’s energy policy for Oklahomans, and based on what you guys certainly know about American energy production?
STITT: Yeah. So, for everybody listening to your show, let’s just set politics aside for a second. Every single president of the United States — whether a Republican or Democrat — since 1973 had an energy independence policy. That makes common sense for Americans. Let’s meet the needs of our citizens with our own resources, our own companies, our own employees. This administration, they want to buy oil from Russia. They want to buy it from the Saudis. They want to ask them to increase. They want to be reliant on other countries when we have the resources in our own country to take care of our needs.
Because we’re still driving to work and heating our homes and businesses and taking our kids to soccer practice and football practice. So demand is the same, but they choke off supply and then they scratch their head when everything costs more! The same people that they try to help, they’re actually harming because it’s the people at the lower-income bracket that pay a higher percentage of their money on groceries and gasoline. And so, it’s so frustrating and such commonsense that we have to have these honest conversations. And by the way, Oklahoma, everybody thinks we’re just an oil-and-gas state. I’m so proud of our oil and gas industry. We’re actually number four in oil, number three in natural gas, but we’re number two in wind-energy production! We’re not afraid of renewables at all. But let’s have an honest conversation about meeting the needs of Americans with our own resources.
BUCK: Governor Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma. Governor, we appreciate you taking the time for us, sir. Thanks so much.
STITT: Oh, absolutely. Thanks for having me on.