Republican-led states rush to align with Trump's MAGA agenda

NBC News

05-02-2025

Republican governors and state lawmakers are rushing to explicitly align themselves with or mimic some of the most prominent actions President Donald Trump has taken since he was sworn in.
As state legislatures have convened across the country in recent weeks, elected GOP officials have sought to advance bills designed to help facilitate Trump's mass deportation plans — some of which are named after or specifically reference the president. And governors and lawmakers in at least 11 states have attempted to create their own version of the Department of Government Efficiency, the outside advisory commission that Trump put tech billionaire Elon Musk in charge of to find ways to cut federal spending.
The moves, largely centered in solidly red states, at the outset of Trump's second term underscore the political grip he has on the GOP base and the desire of elected officials in the party to be seen as nothing less than loyal to him.
'Whether you want to call it a mandate or just a strong victory, it wouldn't seem unusual to me for state leaders to look to emulate the example' set by Trump, said Zack Roday, a Republican operative who has worked for the political arms of several conservative governors. 'It makes perfect sense — the labeling is less the feature than the ethos and joining the wave that has swept across the country.'
The most recent example came in Oklahoma, where Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt on Monday issued an executive order to create a 'Division of Government Efficiency' (called DOGE-OK) within the state's agency in charge of human resources and information technology.
A press release from Stitt said the agency would be designed to 'focus on eliminating wasteful government spending, improving efficiency, and ensuring taxpayer dollars are being used effectively across state governments.'
Trump's DOGE has already upended the federal government in just the past few weeks, with Musk gaining access to the Treasury Department's payment system and suggesting that the U.S. Agency for International Development would be shut down.
Stitt's office said the Oklahoma division will be led by a 'chief DOGE advisor,' an unpaid position that reports directly to the governor. A Stitt spokesperson didn't respond to questions from NBC News about who was being tapped to fill that position.
In New Hampshire, Gov. Kelly Ayotte similarly signed an executive order the day she was sworn in last month to create a 'Commission on Government Efficiency' (COGE).
Ayotte's commission is composed of 15 members appointed by her and legislative leaders, and will be charged with submitting to her 'proposals to streamline government, cut inefficient spending, and find the most efficient ways to serve the people of New Hampshire.' The commission so far includes a former governor, current and former state lawmakers and some local business leaders.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, both Republicans, have also signaled their desire to move forward with DOGE-like apparatuses. Reynolds has said she intends to launch a DOGE task force in Iowa, while Landry signed an executive order in December to create a 'Fiscal Responsibility Program' with goals similar to Trump's DOGE.
Plus, several Republican-led legislatures in states that have a Democratic governor — including Wisconsin, Arizona and North Carolina — have recently launched state legislative committees that are in line with DOGE. Republican lawmakers in Idaho, Texas, Kansas and Missouri have also said they were planning to introduce proposals to create similar committees.
Republicans seek to back up Trump's immigration moves
Republican state officials have also sought to help facilitate or reinforce Trump's hard-line immigration policies.
Oklahoma's state superintendent, Ryan Walters, who oversees the State Board of Education, last week approved new rules requiring all families enrolling children in public schools to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship.
The new rules — if approved by the governor and the state Legislature — would require public school districts to track students who cannot verify their immigration status and report those figures to state officials.
That would, in effect, help create a new state-run system to help track undocumented people in the state — and could advance local elements of Trump's mass deportation push.
'You have to have the data around where your kids are coming from. We will make sure that President Trump and his administration have this information,' Walters said at a meeting of the Oklahoma State Board of Education last week.
Critics argue that the action would almost certainly violate a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that found the government cannot prevent children of undocumented people from attending public schools.
Meanwhile, the Republican governors of Tennessee and Florida convened special sessions last month explicitly intended to address or work with the Trump administration's deportation push. Some of the bills that flowed through those sessions were even named for the president, such as the Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy (TRUMP) Act in Florida
In Florida, initial proposals for the special session included repealing in-state college tuition for undocumented students, bolstering state and local cooperation with federal immigration authorities, creating a state immigration enforcement officer role to specifically coordinate with the federal government and to strengthen the state's deportation regulations.
Gov. Ron DeSantis initially called a special legislative session aimed at ensuring state laws were closely aligned with the flurry of executive orders signed by Trump. (Lawmakers rebuked DeSantis' special session and ended up calling their own). The final bill included mandatory death sentences for undocumented immigrants who commit crimes such as murder and child rape and boosting sentencing guidelines for other crimes.
Much of what was passed, however, is likely to be vetoed by DeSantis due to the ongoing power struggle with the GOP-led Legislature.
In Tennessee, Gov. Bill Lee convened a special legislative session to 'address public safety measures regarding illegal immigration, as the incoming Trump Administration has called on states to prepare for policy implementation.'
Tennessee lawmakers last week passed several bills enacting conservative policy on education and immigration issues, including those that created a central state office for immigration issues and financial incentives to local police departments helping enforce federal immigration actions. Another measure made it a felony for local officeholders to vote in support of sanctuary policies.
Groups advocating progressive state-level policies blasted the plethora of moves in conservative states across the nation.
'Rightwing state lawmakers are not only acting as a rubber stamp for Trump's worst instincts and policies, but they're also pushing even more extreme policies that we know will increase costs, undermine our personal freedoms, and make our country less safe,' said Mandara Meyers, chief programs officer of The States Project, a Democratic-aligned group that has spent significantly to boost the party's state legislative prospects in recent years.