At his weekly Wednesday press conference, Gov. Kevin Stitt summoned a slate of officials and Firehawk Aerospace executives behind his podium for the company’s announcement of a $22 million revolutionary rocket fuel plant slated for the Lawton area.
With House Appropriations and Budget Committee Chairman Trey Caldwell on hand for the occasion, Stitt fielded a question about Thursday’s looming legislative finale: lawmakers’ long-awaited decisions about which of the governor’s 68 bill vetoes should be — or could be — overridden by two-thirds majorities in both chambers.
“I met with groups from the Senate. Met with the speaker and the pro temp earlier. The next step is I think they’re going to — we’ll have to ask Caldwell this — they probably want to try to override a few of my vetoes,” Stitt said. “That’ll be a nice conversation that we can have together. But I only veto bad bills, so if they override anything, Chairman Caldwell —”
The southwest Oklahoma rancher with a business finance degree chimed in: “You’ve never vetoed one of my bills in seven and a half years.”
Stitt laughed.
“Really? That’s great,” he said. “See, I’m a smart governor. He’s the chairman of appropriations.”
Like a broadcaster’s jinx, the exchange portended problems for the two men. Hamstrung by his own comments throughout Thursday, Stitt saw most of his vetoes overturned by lawmakers.
Caldwell (R-Lawton) spent the day coordinating conversations in the Capitol rotunda and working to land the year’s plane in whichever Senate districts would help override one of his four bills Stitt vetoed: HB 2769, a massive Military Department and National Guard omnibus bill filled with complicated law that received scant explanation through four legislative hearings.
“It’s part of the process,” Caldwell said of Stitt’s veto decisions Thursday morning. “I was shocked, though. I thought we were going to keep the seven-and-a-half-year streak alive. But all good things must come to an end.”
While most of the 2025 regular session had seen Stitt and legislative leaders co-exist more harmoniously than in years past, the relationship reverted Thursday like a pet raccoon that can’t stay out of the trash. With Stitt’s feisty veto pen already inking and irking influential lawmakers, his social media videos upped the temperature on smoldering embers.
“Hey Oklahoma, we’re wrapping up session right now, and today is one of the most important days of session,” Stitt said in one video. “I’ve vetoed 68 bills absolutely that were going to put more regulations on businesses and cause higher taxes for Oklahomans, so remember this: You did an awesome job. You took out some of the most liberal people in the Senate in the primary and the general election last election in ’24, and when ’26 comes up, you gotta know how these people vote, and are these people voting for bigger government and to override the governor’s veto? So I’ll be reminding you about that in ’26 on these elections. Hold us accountable for limited government, smaller taxes, because just because people have an ‘R’ by their name when they’re running, you’ve gotta know how they’re voting, and today is the telltale sign. Do they believe in freedoms and limited government, or do they believe in bigger government and whatever the lobbyist crowd want around this building? So stay tuned and make sure you call up here and hold your legislators accountable.”
That message to the masses landed poorly among legislators. Rep. Scott Fetgatter verbalized his peers’ frustration when making a motion to override Stitt’s veto on HB 2459, adding food truck regulations that he said don’t require the “costly fire suppressor systems” criticized by Stitt.
“Evidently, since the governor has called for all of us to be primaried that override his vetoes today — and his staff can’t seem to read the bill correctly, and they vetoed my bill — I make a motion to override the veto,” said Fetgatter (R-Okmulgee).
The governor’s video reminded some lawmakers of the tennis title given to Stitt by the late Ryan Kiesel: “He’s the king of unforced errors.”
Attorney General Gentner Drummond criticized Stitt for “threatening legislators who dare seek to override a veto.”
“This isn’t leadership. It’s bullying,” Drummond tweeted. “The vast majority of legislators are strong conservatives working to improve the lives of Oklahomans. These vetoes would diminish public safety, protect corruption and cronyism, prevent health insurance from covering breast screenings, empower drunk drivers, and more.”
Meyer Siegfried, Stitt’s press secretary, fired back with his own tweet that ramped up the vernacular against the early 2026 gubernatorial frontrunner.
“So Gentner Drummond believes the Legislature knows best. Is this how Gentner intends to lead?” Siegfried said. “Green lighting every little thing the Legislature wants? Problematic and spineless. Go read why our governor vetoed their shit bills.”
As each chamber recessed Thursday afternoon in a stalemate over HB 2769, some lawmakers walked the rotunda griping about the governor “making a video every five minutes.”
“We had agreements, and we’re trying to hold to these agreements,” said Rep. David Hardin (R-Stilwell). “And he’s just making these videos and not making very many friends.”
Mammography mandate override draws standing ovations
After House members returned from lunch with extra indigestion — and additional bills on their override agenda — Rep. Melissa Provenzano made a motion to override the veto of her HB 1389, which would strengthen requirements for health insurance companies to cover breast cancer screening procedures.
With Provenzano battling breast cancer herself since December, House members cheered as she finished her motion — and showed emotion.
“Members, I bet you didn’t mean to make her tear up,” the House’s presiding officer said.
When the override vote passed 83-3, Provenzano received a standing ovation and a hug from Rep. Cynthia Roe (R-Lindsay).
“Congratulations, representative,” the presiding officer said. “We’re very proud of you.”
As she waited for the Senate to act on HB 1389’s override, Provenzano said she was proud of her colleagues.
“It was awesome,” said Provenzano (D-Tulsa). “I’m actually very pleased and am reminded once again that we are humans first and politicians second. I appreciate the members of the House of Representatives for the overwhelming support they have shown to me and toward this bill.”
When HB 1389’s override came up on the Senate floor, Sen. Micheal Bergstrom spoke in debate, noting that he had voted against the bill on original passage. When he returned to his northeast Oklahoma district, however, constituents in the health care industry and his family — including a daughter who has survived breast cancer — spoke to him about the expanded mammography mandate.
“I was taken to the woodshed, and I decided to listen to my constituents, particularly the one I am married to and the ones my wife gave birth to, and I am going to urge a ‘Yes’ vote,” said Bergstrom (R-Adair).
The override passed the Senate 42-2, and Provenzano received another standing ovation on the upper chamber’s floor.
Ding… ding… ding… military omnibus bill drags out the day
Before Provenzano’s bill or any other could be fully overridden and crammed down the governor’s gullet into law, a game of political chicken hatched into a stalemate on the Senate board for five hours.
With the voting bell tolling for whomever would become the 31st and 32nd override votes on HB 2769, the House took no action on Senate bill overrides until the Senate could pass the omnibus military measure carried by Caldwell and pushed by powerful Rep. Chris Kannady (R-OKC).
A lobbyist lingering in the building hours into the elongated open vote attempted to summarize the session-ending silliness on the condition of anonymity.
“It’s like we’re stuck in some never-ending boot loop on our computer that we know will get fixed but we don’t know how to fix it,” the person said. “We all knew what was going to happen today, and [legislators] knew what was going to happen today, and yet the pain is the inefficiency of how they’re making it happen. It just feels very bad because it doesn’t mean anything.”
While the remark unintentionally predicted the House’s Thursday night computer problems that made voting impossible for nearly an hour, the day’s longest delay still involved HB 2769.
The bill went on the board about 4:10 p.m. and languished with only 30 of 32 necessary votes in favor of override. Sen. Nikki Nice (D-OKC) flipped from “Nay” to “Aye” around 5:50 p.m., but Sen. Casey Murdock (R-Felt) flipped from “Aye” to “Nay” around 6:30 p.m. The board stayed that way for nearly three more hours.
In his veto message for HB 2769, Stitt critiqued the way the beefy bill arrived at his desk, and he said the “new retirement system” it contained was not necessary:
While I applaud all our men and women who serve our country and our state in the National Guard, I cannot allow this bill to become law. This bill makes many major changes to our National Guard statutes and our state finances. This bill lacked any fiscal analysis, meaning that the Legislature passed this bill without knowing how it affects Oklahoma taxpayers.
This bill also creates a new retirement system designed to boost National Guard recruitment, even though Oklahoma is already best in the nation. The policies in this bill should be considered, reviewed, and debated as separate and distinct bills.
During that time, Kannady pushed back on rumors that he was supporting the bill’s changes to the qualifications for adjutant general of Oklahoma because he is eyeing the position in the potential administration of a Gov. Gentner Drummond.
“If I wanted to be adjutant general, I already qualify right now,” Kannady said. “This bill does nothing to make me qualify for that position.”
With Murdock switching back to “Aye” shortly before 9 p.m., HB 2769’s override stood at 31-15 again. After a conversation with a political advisor, Sen. Roland Pederson (R-Burlington) walked back onto the floor and switched from “Nay” to “Aye” just before 9:15 p.m. The Senate lobby erupted with jubilation from the smattering of folks in the area. Caldwell pumped a fist in the air and screamed, “Yeah!”
Those who remained opposed to the override, however, were less enthused. Sen. Kendal Sacchieri (R-Blanchard) said her opposition stemmed from the bill’s broad scope.
“I voted ‘No’ on this bill the first time,” she said. “It’s three bills crammed into one with way too many concerns that couldn’t be addressed, and it feels like a bill designed for one man, and it held up so many other bills because the votes weren’t there.”
Asked why it was so important to put HB 2769 on the board when he didn’t have the votes to override it, Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton said, “We weren’t sure we didn’t have the votes.”
“There were some members that we needed to talk to about — we stayed open a lot longer than what we were planning on,” said Paxton (R-Tuttle). “But members kept having phone calls and kept talking and it was like, ‘Hey, let me think about it some more.’ So one hour turned to two hours turned to five hours. It went longer than what we were planning on, but at the end of the day, we were able to get the votes that we needed to move that bill forward.”
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Scope of OKC, Tulsa ‘Business Courts’ fought in final days
In a litigious legislative year that saw compromise on tort reform and workers’ compensation, the final behind-the-scenes language fight of 2025 involved SB 632 — the Business Courts bill defining one of the commitments Stitt secured from legislative leaders to seal last year’s budget deal.
Nonetheless, a dispute broke out this year, with Senate, House and gubernatorial negotiators beefing about language over the past week. First, the three legs of the proverbial stool reached agreement on how to appoint the new Business Court judges: gubernatorial choice from among three House speaker suggestions, followed by Senate confirmation. (The governor can request a second set of House submissions.)
With the appointment process settled, the fight turned to scope.
Kannady sought language preventing oil and gas royalty cases from entering the new Business Court districts being established in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Agricultural and mineral owner groups found themselves engaged in the conversation based on what Stitt called “misinformation” Wednesday.
“The Farm Bureau let me know that they were concerned about a couple things, and their concern was that a royalty owner didn’t have access to the court system if they wanted to bring a suit against an oil and gas company, or somebody that was drilling on their property and they were afraid that they were going to have to travel to Oklahoma City or Tulsa to one of the Business Courts. That’s not true,” Stitt said. “They still have every right to go to district courts in their local areas to fight those claims. So that was something we were trying to dispel as some of the maybe claimants’ attorneys were trying to spin this up and trying to tank our Business Courts.”
With rumors of a trailer bill wafting around Wednesday, Kannady and lobbyists for attorney groups remained frustrated with the width of the new judicial pathway being paved.
“Business Courts are supposed to be just that — business to business. And that is not what this is,” Kannady said Thursday. “There are other things in there that bring cases into it that aren’t a business-to-business case.”
Mason Mungle, president of the Royalty Owners Coalition of Oklahoma, said his group’s members “will be forced into the newly created business courts in Oklahoma City and Tulsa when disputes arise with oil and gas companies.”
“[We have] asked for an exemption to preserve the right of mineral and royalty owners to appear in their local district court with their local attorney,” Mungle said. “This also keeps litigation costs affordable for mineral and royalty owners in rural Oklahoma. The Petroleum Alliance and executive branch want to limit this easier local access to the courts that Oklahoma royalty owners now possess.”
The 47 vetoes that were overridden
When lawmakers adjourned early Friday morning around 12:30 a.m., no trailer bill on the Business Courts topic had been revealed or passed. Instead, the mood was particularly somber in the Senate after the five-hour vote on the military bill was followed by Senate Concurrent Resolution 12 to remove Allie Friesen as commissioner of mental health. Stitt’s team had again released a message that infuriated lawmakers by dragging Sen. Paul Rosino’s wife into the fray owing to her part-time employment at the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
“Stop letting the second floor bully everyone in this building,” Sen. Christi Gillespie (R-Broken Arrow) said to close her debate in favor of SCR 12.
All things considered, that’s basically what the Legislature did Thursday. After the Senate adjourned sine die 30 minutes into Friday, Paxton and House Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R-Bristow) gathered for a press gaggle that ended at 1 a.m. on the dot.
Hilbert, whose chamber returned Friday at 9:30 a.m. to thank staff and officially adjourn sine die, described how Stitt’s video message led lawmakers to override 50 of his 68 vetoes — far more than initially expected.
“There were some that the executive still had issues with us taking up for an override. We said, ‘OK, we’ll continue to have those conversations.’ And so while we were having those conversations, there was a video put out from the governor’s office calling on everybody to watch our votes come the next primary election season,” Hilbert said. “We felt like that was pretty much out of bounds to do that, because everything that we had been doing was in good faith with everything that we had committed to doing with the governor. And again, all the veto overrides in both chambers that we had taken up to that point, the governor had told us he had no issues with us taking up and overriding. (…) We were pretty frustrated when that video that came out, and so I told my team, I said, ‘Look, we did our part. We tried to have conversations with the executive branch. Now, if we have two-thirds votes, we’re going to put it up.’ And so that’s what we did.”
Paxton said that “up until this morning, things had gone really, really well.”
“We were quite taken back and surprised when the governor’s video came out, and then later in the day is when a press release came out from the governor that basically was attacking a House member and a Senate member. But more importantly, more disappointing, was the attack on the Senate member’s wife, and so that really kind of set the end of the stage in this deal.”
When all was said and done, both chambers overrode the governor’s vetoes on 47 bills:
- HB 1137 makes small changes to existing statute about how the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation shall coordinate with the U.S. Department of Justice on efforts regarding the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous persons;
- HB 1138 strengthens a state employee dispute resolution program;
- HB 1178 creates a misdemeanor charge for individuals who are not disabled and falsely claim they have a service animal or use a service animal to gain benefits afforded to disabled people;
- HB 1216 allows the Construction Industries Board to charge an increased fine for repeat offenses and unpaid initial fines. It also adds roofing to the list of industries it regulates;
- HB 1273 creates an alternative program for domestic violence offenders and changes obligations related to the existing batterers’ intervention program;
- HB 1356 requires individuals who enter an easement property through a livestock gate to maintain its original position after using it or else face misdemeanor charges;
- HB 1389 mandates increased coverage of breast cancer screening services;
- HB 1487 creates license plates about the Tulsa Air & Space Museum, the Church Studio, Star Spencer High School and the Ralph Ellison Foundation;
- HB 1543 gives the Conservation Commission the power to enter into contracts and to work with tribal governments. It also repeals a statute that required it to establish a fund to support conservation districts that consolidate. (The Senate had to vote twice to override its veto);
- HB 1563 authorizes a defendant to issue a subpoena duces tecum — or mandate to provide documents or evidence — to a business or commercial entity for certain records. The bill also requires law enforcement agencies to turn over body camera, dashboard camera and sobriety test evidence to prosecuting authorities within 30 days of a charge being filed, and it requires the prosecutor to turn over that evidence to defense counsel within 90 days;
- HB 1576 requires the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to include coverage of rapid whole genome sequencing as a separately payable service for Medicaid beneficiaries in certain instances when a health care provider orders the genetic data to assist with diagnosis and treatment of conditions;
- HB 1592 creates a new law enforcement arm in the Attorney General’s Office to address “organized retail crime;”
- HB 1751 makes broad changes to Service Oklahoma, including a requirement that the agency “give notice” by first-class mail and stipulations about what decals and details can be placed in driver’s licenses and identification cards;
- HB 1819 increases the annual license fee that the Board of Examiners in Optometry may charge from $300 to $500. (The Senate had to vote twice to override its veto);
- HB 2048 adds requirements for pharmacy benefit managers and insurance companies to authorize prescriptions at 340B pharmacies run by hospitals and federally qualified health centers;
- HB 2131 further limits the circumstances by which anyone can access grand jury transcripts after a grand jury indicts a person;
- HB 2147 creates the “Municipal Code Lien Enforcement Act of 2025,” which allows municipalities to charge a lien against property in violation of housing and building codes and allows for foreclosure against such property, providing it is not “owner-occupied;”
- HB 2163 establishes a “Public Access Counselor Unit” in the Attorney General’s Office to assist members of the public in accessing information via the Open Records Act;
- HB 2164 establishes self-dealing by state and county public officials as a felony punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years. The bill expands the definition of “corruption in office” to “include the use of public office or authority to procure or attempt to procure a personal benefit, profit, or perquisite.” The bill also states that “any agreement or collusion among bidders or prospective bidders in restraint of freedom of competition by agreement to bid at a fixed price or to refrain from bidding for any purpose (…) shall render the bids of such bidders void;”
- HB 2167 increases newspaper publication fees for public notices and requires legal newspapers to post the notices online in front of a paywall;
- HB 2260 creates a tax credit for civil engineers;
- HB 2263 prohibits drivers from holding or using a cell phone while driving through a school zone;
- HB 2298 expands prescriptive authority for nurse practitioners;
- HB 2374 modifies the Filmed in Oklahoma Act, defining changes to how movies and shows filmed in Oklahoma may be taxed;
- HB 2459 makes changes to statute requiring food trucks to have fire safety systems to say that they “shall be in compliance with the most current adopted fire code;”
- HB 2584 expands prescriptive authority for physician assistants;
- HB 2769 is a Military Department omnibus bill that makes numerous changes to the Oklahoma National Guard;
- HB 2778 creates a new income tax credit for child care professionals;
- HB 2785 requires the Office of Management and Enterprise Services to ensure a series of practices regarding Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services budgeting; and
- SB 54 modifies the scope and sentencing provisions for certain motor vehicle offenses;
- SB 324 creates the Oklahoma Research and Development Rebate Fund and establishes parameters for the Department of Commerce to issue rebates at a maximum amount of $20 million;
- SB 424 creates the Oklahoma Community Health Worker Act and establishes certain eligibility requirements for voluntary community health worker certification;
- SB 443 modifies the powers and duties of the Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision, as well as certain licensure requirements;
- SB 574 amends definitions used in the Political Subdivisions Opioid Abatements Grants Act to broaden approved purposes of opioid grants awards. The bill lso authorizes the Attorney General’s Office to use certain funds;
- SB 687 drops from $42 million to $14 million the maximum amount of rebates available to be issued by the Oklahoma Broadband Office for sales and use taxes paid on certain equipment.
- SB 631 establishes a minimum sentence for discharging a firearm into a building or dwelling used for public or business purposes;
- SB 694 provides certain exemptions and allows for written consent related to the annexation and detachment of municipal territory;
- SB 713 adds a requirement on new wind farm facilities to include certain technology for detection of and warning of airplanes;
- SB 770 expands the membership of the Commission for Rehabilitation Services;
- SB 804 requires long-term care facilities to create internal quality assurance committees. The bill also requires the commissioner of health to promulgate rules regarding minimum standards for medical care and medication administration;
- SB 837 modifies certain special license plates and subsequent issuances of special license plates;
- SB 870 creates the Accountability, Transparency, and Protection for Exploited Youth Act and amends language related to the obtainment of juvenile records;
- SB 951 requires appraisal of improvements made to Commissioner of the Land Office property leased to a third party and requires reimbursement of such improvements to a prior lessee by a subsequent lessee;
- SB 1014 amends language related to the Public Competitive Bidding Act of 1974 requiring local bid preference for certain public construction contracts;
- SB 1050 decreases the allowable time to file certain claims under the Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act;
- SB 1083 establishes requirements and parameters regarding blockchain digital asset kiosks;
- SB 1089 amends definitions related to the determination of mental health competency modifying procedures for proceedings for restoration of competency.
