Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s office is refusing to respond to an inqiury as to whether or not the governor is in receipt of a “playbook” distributed by a progressive governors organization with instructions for stonewalling president Trump’s policy agenda – up to and including calling out state National Guard units.
Grace Hoge, press secretary for Governor Kelly, did not respond this week to an email from the Informer asking if the governor was in receipt of the 126-page document, and whether or not Kelly intended to follow its directions as Democrats struggle to gain some type of footing against Trump’s public policy blitz since January 20. Kaylee Berroth, the public information officer for Kelly’s Department of Administration, also did not respond to an email Tuesday.
The “Firewall for Freedom” – Template For Gubernatorial Executive Order” playbook was detailed in a recent article by conservative writer Fred Lucas and published in the online news magazine The Daily Signal. In it, Lucas describes the document compiled and distributed by the Governors Action Alliance, a Democrat organization which founded “Governors Safeguarding Democracy” after Trump’s election in November 2024. A copy of the playbook was obtained by a public records request from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s office by Government Accountability and Oversight, a private watchdog group.
Twenty-three states presently have Democrat governors, while 27 are led by Republicans.
The Daily Signal piece describes a document that includes emails, talking points and other directives for opposing Trump immigration and fiscal policy, including the employment of state National Guard units. The document instructs that “no state agency, employee, or agent may comply with a request for information or assistance if they have reason to believe the request is in furtherance of any investigation, arrest, prosecution, or other sanction of conduct initiated by federal authorities or out-of-state authorities.” The directives include refusing to assist Federal officials regarding “health care services…lawful under state law, and no assistance to Federal authorities to either identify or assist in the apprehension of individuals subject to Federal immigration laws or prosecution.
The document offers a potential look at what lies ahead in the likely conflict between Trump’s new administration and the largely left-oriented Democrat-run states. Also in play is the political makeup of the individual state legislatures. Kelly struggles with Republican supermajorities in both the state House and Senate though she’s prevailed on some key veto override attempts. Nationwide, Republicans control 29 state House and Senate chambers.
Lucas’ article notes “The model executive order on the National Guard says, “No assistance to deployments over objection of the office of the governor.” The draft order says state employees “shall provide no time, money, facilities, property, equipment, personnel, or other resources for purposes of: assistance to any National Guard unit of another state that is deployed to this state, if the Office of the Governor of [this state] has objected to such deployment.”
National Guard units can be called up by the Governor of a state for service within the borders of that state, or they can be federalized under what’s known as “Title 10” service for deployment by the President to areas of need either inside or outside the United States.
Heavily-Republican Kansans turned out en masse for Trump in the 2024 election, giving him 57 percent of the vote. Kelly won re-election in 2022 against Republican challenger and now 2nd District U.S. Congressman Derek Schmidt by 49.5-47.3 percent.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
