The deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois at the behest of President Trump has divided the nation\u2019s governors, severing the bonds between state leaders who have long portrayed themselves as above the partisan fray.<\/p>\n
The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, along with Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, both Democrats, have threatened to leave the once-chummy National Governors Association, a group formed more than 100 years ago and dedicated to finding areas of bipartisan agreement even in fractious political times.<\/p>\n
Instead, Democratic governors are accusing Republicans, especially Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, of a betrayal, even an \u201cinvasion\u201d of their states.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreg Abbott is a tool of Donald Trump, he\u2019s his lackey,\u201d said Mr. Pritzker in an interview<\/a> with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC this week. <\/p>\n Mr. Abbott returned fire, calling Mr. Pritzker \u201cclueless.\u201d<\/p>\n Such animus would once have been considered unusual or out of bounds for governors, who generally have seen themselves as pragmatic politicians, required to balance budgets and find solutions for their states, regardless of party. The governors have hosted \u201cdisagree better\u201d road shows in between twice-annual meetings and White House galas marked by bonhomie.<\/p>\n But the deployment of about 200 troops from Texas to the Chicago area, and the threatened movement of Texas troops to Portland, Ore., have ruptured such comity. <\/p>\n \u201cThe president wants to call up National Guard troops in a way that we don\u2019t believe is lawful,\u201d Gov. Tina Kotek of Oregon, a Democrat, said in an interview. \u201cThat should concern every governor, Republican or Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n Republican governors have been mostly silent. But on Thursday, Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, the current chairman of the National Governors Association, said in an interview that the deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois violated his beliefs in federalism and \u201cstates\u2019 rights.\u201d <\/p>\n Mr. Stitt stressed that he supported Mr. Trump\u2019s efforts to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and ensure \u201claw and order\u201d in cities like Chicago and Portland. But he worried about the precedent that was being set by the guard deployment and how it could be used by a president from another party.<\/p>\n \u201cOklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration,\u201d Mr. Stitt said.<\/p>\n Instead, Mr. Stitt said, Mr. Trump should have moved to federalize the troops in Illinois first.<\/p>\n His comments came as Democratic governors were imploring Mr. Abbott to rebuff the president\u2019s move. The Texan in turn castigated his Democratic colleagues as weak on crime and illegal immigration.<\/p>\n For Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Abbott, the rift over Texas troops is only the latest in an ongoing and bitter public feud that has not been a model of respectful debate.<\/p>\n Beyond calling Mr. Pritzker clueless, Mr. Abbott said during an appearance on Fox News<\/a> on Tuesday, \u201cIf anybody is shot, if anybody is attacked, I tell you what, Governor Pritzker and the local mayor there in Chicago, they are accomplices to those crimes by stirring up this hate against I.C.E. agents.\u201d <\/p>\n (Mr. Trump said Wednesday<\/a> that Mr. Pritzker and the Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, \u201cshould be in jail.\u201d)<\/p>\n Playing in the background is the 2028 presidential election, in which many of the big state governors \u2014 including Mr. Pritzker, Mr. Newsom and Mr. Abbott \u2014 see themselves as prime candidates to be their party\u2019s nominee.<\/p>\n Mr. Abbott said as much about the Illinois and California governors during the Tuesday interview. \u201cThey\u2019re hoping to be first in line when it comes to the Democrat nomination for the presidency,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t matter which one of them may be the winner of that nomination, because they are utter failures for our country.\u201d <\/p>\n Mr. Abbott has previously denied that he himself has presidential aspirations, and a political consultant for the governor said that the Texas governor was focused on his re-election bid next year. But politics are always present: Mr. Abbott\u2019s campaign sent an email on Wednesday soliciting support \u2014 and an email and phone number \u2014 for the deployment. <\/p>\n \u201cWhile other states turn their backs on President Trump, elite members of the Texas National Guard are stepping in,\u201d the email read.<\/p>\n Some bipartisanship still exists \u2014 with former governors. More than two dozen of them filed a motion on Wednesday afternoon requesting permission to enter a legal brief objecting to the Texas Guard mobilization in Illinois. Among the Republicans were William Weld of Massachusetts, Bill Graves of Kansas, Arne Carlson of Minnesota, Marc Racicot of Montana and Christie Whitman of New Jersey.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president\u2019s assertion of authority to deploy military troops on domestic soil based on his unreviewable discretion, and without the cooperation and coordination of state authorities, threatens to upset the delicate balance of state and federal authority that underlies our constitutional order,\u201d more than two dozen former governors wrote.<\/p>\n All of this has put severe strains on the National Governors Association, which since 1908 has sought to create a space for socializing and negotiations between Republican and Democratic states. <\/p>\n The association has so far been silent on the brewing clash between governors and the threats by Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Newsom to quit. Mr. Stitt said his comments were made as the governor of Oklahoma and were not meant as a statement from the association.<\/p>\n \u201cThe N.G.A. is an educational organization under I.R.S. code,\u201d said Mr. Stitt. \u201cAnd so we\u2019re not going to be weighing into the politics. That\u2019s not our lane.\u201d<\/p>\n Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas, the chairwoman of the Democratic Governors Association, called the National Guard deployments across state lines ordered by the president \u201ca blatant abuse of power and an attack on state sovereignty.\u201d The Republican Governors Association has also not weighed in.<\/p>\n Mr. Newsom suggested he would do the same if the association did not position itself against the interstate deployments over the objections of governors. <\/p>\n \u201cIf the National Governors Association cannot stand against states LITERALLY INVADING ONE ANOTHER \u2014 count me out,\u201d he wrote on social media<\/a>. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a Democrat, stepped away from the group earlier this year, citing a lack of bipartisanship as her reason for leaving<\/a>.<\/p>\n In recent years, the group has tried to show the country how to \u201cdisagree better,\u201d putting out videos<\/a> in which governors of different parties demonstrate to voters how to air political conflicts face-to-face, rather than to retreat to separate partisan corners. Instead, this week the disagreements got worse, after Mr. Abbott agreed to send his troops north.<\/p>\n The idea of \u201cdisagree better,\u201d spearheaded by Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah, a Republican, when he was chair of the organization, was to have governors model productive debate for people around the county in order to try to turn down the political temperature and lessen the nation\u2019s polarization. <\/p>\n The effort appeared to be effective, said Robb Willer, a Stanford University professor and adviser to the initiative who studied its impact. \u201cWe found that when we showed that to even far-left and far-right Democrats and Republicans, that they were impressed,\u201d he said, \u201dand on average tended to view the governors more positively.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Dr. Willer said, by fighting aggressively in public, the governors may be worsening already-heightened political tension. <\/p>\n \u201cCues from party leaders are a major factor that influences Americans\u2019 levels of toxic polarization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A spokesman for Mr. Cox did not respond to a request for an interview with the governor. <\/p>\n Mr. Stitt said in the interview that he hoped more Americans would accept that \u201celections have consequences.\u201d That applies both for Democrats who dislike Mr. Trump and for Republicans who oppose elected state leaders such as Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Newsom.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re doing what they think is right for their state or their country,\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s give the other side the benefit of the doubt. I would tell the other side, let\u2019s give President Trump the benefit of the doubt; don\u2019t just always attack him for trying to protect these cities.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Stitt added that he would be seeing Mr. Abbott over the weekend in Dallas, when Oklahoma University plays the University of Texas. \u201cI\u2019m sure it will come up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Tension between Mr. Abbott and Mr. Pritzker has been growing over the last few years as each has found ways to insert himself into the affairs of the other\u2019s state.<\/p>\n From 2022 to 2024, the Texas governor sent more than 36,000 migrants from the border to Chicago, part of his aggressive effort to target Democratic cities<\/a> that had held themselves out as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n