DC Council calls Governors to withdraw National Guard from DC
On July 22, 2026, DC Councilmembers unanimously signed and sent letters to Governors to withdraw their National Guard troops from Washington, DC.
In the letter, they assert, “continuing this deployment despite the absence of a demonstrated violent-crime benefit would misuse both taxpayer dollars—in the billions, if maintained for years at its expanded scale—and the service of the Guard members themselves.”
They also remind the governors, “D.C. residents pay federal taxes, serve in the military, and host our nation’s democratic institutions, yet are denied full voting representation in Congress and full control over our own local affairs. As a state governor, we hope you can imagine the injustice of facing outside military forces indefinitely occupying our communities without statehood-level accountability and local control.”
Read the letters below.
Thousands of people have now written letters to these governors. DC residents are filming the Guard, allies in the states are agitating their leaders, and together we are making it clear that DC wants the Guard gone.
