Updated May 30, 2025 at 11:55 AM CDT
The House of Representatives and Senate overrode dozens of vetoes in rapid succession after several starts and stops.
The Senate stalled out in the late afternoon while lawmakers in favor of overriding Stitt's veto on HB 2769 worked to get enough votes. After hours at a standstill, the bill became law.
The chamber took a brief interlude to remove Commissioner Allie Friesen from her role as the head of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, then they quickly moved through veto override votes. By adjournment after midnight, the two chambers had attempted to overturn almost 50 of the governor's 68 vetoes.
Both the number of vetoes and the number of overrides were records in state history.
Most of the overrides were approved with little discussion or opposition. Nay votes generally came either from Democrats or a consistent group of conservative lawmakers, some of whom have labeled themselves as part of the state's Freedom Caucus.
Lawmakers in the House encountered issues with their voting software, extending an already long night.
One bill, Rep. Melissa Provenzano's proposal to ensure health insurance coverage for early breast cancer screenings, was met with a standing ovation upon the Tulsa Democrat's introduction of the override motion. The House voted to make it law with near-unanimous approval. The Senate followed suit hours later.
By the end of the evening, the legislature had overturned 47 vetoes. Two more were overridden by the Senate and awaiting a vote in the House. One veto override, for HB 1521, was approved by the House but not voted on by the Senate before they adjourned sine die.
Only 18 of the governor's 68 vetoes went unchallenged. The vetoes and their overrides highlight tensions between Oklahoma's legislative and executive branches. Stitt allowed 305 bills to become law without his signature this session.
In a video posted to social media, Stitt had a message for Oklahomans on the matter: When lawmakers work against him, they work against voters, too.
"This is stuff that I know is bad for Oklahoma, bad for taxpayers," he wrote. "And you've got the Senate and the House and special interest groups that are trying to override my vetoes."
Stitt called on Oklahomans to vote out "liberal Republicans" working against small government and lower taxes, come the 2026 election season.
On the Senate floor, those Republicans pushed back against his attacks. Numerous Senators criticized the video, and across the rotunda, one Representative even suggested he was "wholly unfit" to serve in public office.
The Senate adjourned sine die, meaning it doesn't plan to meet again until a new session begins. The House called it a night in the wee hours of Friday morning without closing out its lawmaking session.
