Former Ohio state Rep. Adam Miller calls on Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to send members of the Ohio National Guard who were recently deployed to Washington D.C., back home. Photo taken on Aug. 20, 2025. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal).
Ohio advocates are calling on Gov. Mike DeWine to bring home the Ohio National Guard troops recently deployed to Washington D.C.
President Donald Trump said on Aug. 11 he would send National Guard troops to Washington D.C. to crack down on crime and Ohio is one of six states that has so far sent troops to Washington D.C.
Secretary of the Army Daniel P. Driscoll asked DeWine on Friday to send 150 members from the Ohio National Guard to Washington D.C., and members of the Ohio National Guard left for a 30-day deployment.
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“The deployment of the National Guard should be reserved for situations in which the safety of citizens and the integrity of our nation are actually at risk,” said Common Cause Ohio Executive Director Catherine Turcer. “We are here today calling for Gov. DeWine to recall the National Guard immediately.”
Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Tennessee have also sent troops — all states with Republican governors.
“It’s not too late for Gov. DeWine … to cancel this ill considered, legally problematic and unwarranted mission,” said former Democratic Ohio House Rep. Adam Miller. “This political theater has got to end. Our National Guard families and our soldiers deserve better.”
Violent crime in Washington D.C., is at a thirty year low and Toledo, Dayton, and Cleveland all had a higher crime rate than Washington D.C. in 2024.
“Ohio has traditionally helped the District of Columbia, Ohio mayors, and other states when they request assistance from the Ohio National Guard or the Ohio State Highway Patrol,” DeWine’s spokesman Dan Tierney said when asked about the deployment.
The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia has not asked for National Guard troops to be deployed, and Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has spoken out against the deployment.
“The worst thing you can do as any military leader is to sanction an unwarranted action,” said Miller, who is running for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District. He is also a colonel with more than 20 years of service in the U.S. Army Reserve who served as the Judge Advocate General Corps officer.
None of the 150 Ohio deployed troops are part of the Emergency Response Force package, Miller said.
“This is a fake emergency,” Miller said. “Shame on our chain of command for not asking the questions, for not doing their independent due diligence, and for pulling our service members out of existing training and into a dangerous situation.”
Miller praised Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, for rejecting the request to deploy National Guard troops.
“We have to speak up when something happens that is outside the scope of our legal authorities, outside the scope of our mission,” Miller said.
The Ohio National Guard is one of the largest in the country with around 17,000 soldiers and airmen, according to the 122nd Army National Guard Band.
“We’re involved in multiple operations overseas,” Miller said. “We have special forces. You don’t pull people out of critical global terrorism missions for political theater. Putting soldiers and their families into a mission for which they’re not well trained is the worst thing that you can do as a military leader and the governor has got to be more willing to say no, or at least ask questions.”
Part of Trump’s crackdown on crime comes from a recent executive order that forces those experiencing homelessness off the streets.
“With members of United States armed services, including some from our very state, descending as ordered onto Washington D.C., to sanitize and purge the city of people whose only crime is being homeless, it’s clear that a judgment has been reached,” said Rev. Jack Sullivan, Jr., executive director of the Ohio Council of Churches. “It is clear to us that the so-called homelessness and crime crisis in Washington D.C., serve only as manufactured justification for military mobilization.”
ACLU Ohio Legislative Director Gary Daniels said DeWine “has chosen to be part of the problem instead of part of the solution.”
“Requesting National Guard troops to come to another area of the country should be used only for the most extreme examples where they are truly needed and not for what we are seeing here today,” Daniels said. “What exactly is the exit strategy here?”
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