Texas Republicans plan to ask members whether the state should break away from the union in a non-binding question set to be on the ballot for the state’s GOP primary in March 2024.
On Friday, Dec. 1, the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM), a major group working for an autonomous Texas, announced that they had obtained the necessary number of signatures to compel the Texas Republican Party to include the question “Should the State of Texas reassert its status as an independent nation?” on the primary ballot.
“In June of this year, our organization launched a petition campaign under the Texas Election Code 172.088. This segment of the Election Code allows voters, by petition, to place a question on a party’s primary ballot,” a statement released by the TNM stated. “By collecting 97,709 signatures and submitting them by the filing deadline on Dec. 11, 2023, we could actually bypass the SREC’s [State Republican Executive Committee] ballot proposition process and compel the party to place the question on the ballot.”
The TNM’s recent success is part of a long-standing effort for the Lone Star State to conduct a referendum on separation. But political experts argue that there is no provision for a state to withdraw from the Constitution. (Related: Ted Cruz says Texas separation isn’t off the table if socialist Democrats and Marxist Biden regime get their destructive agenda passed.)
Supporters of separation argue Texas would thrive as an autonomous nation
The TNM acknowledges that even if the question successfully makes it to the Republican primary ballot and is approved, it would not be legally binding nor would it guarantee that Texas will actually secede from the United States. The TNM even pointed out that it understands the question would be “advisory only.”
However, the TNM sees the question appearing on the ballot as a major win for itself and other separation advocates in the state as they see it as an opportunity for Republican voters to express their views on whether the state should be independent.
The TNM further noted that by including the question on the ballot, the Texas GOP wouldn’t be “endorsing a specific outcome” but instead backing the principle that the party should be open to considering various perspectives from its members.
“Putting the question on the ballot brings clarity. If, as our detractors say, this is a fringe issue that no one supports, then they should have no resistance to this question being asked of Republican voters,” noted the TNM. “In fact, they should be some of its strongest supporters. If what they say is true, then the results will show that fact, and Texit will be a dead issue in the party for a generation.”
“Let the people of Texas have their say,” said Daniel Miller, president of the TNM. “If no one believes in it, then you get to shut me up.”
Miller argues that Texas would thrive economically and socially as an autonomous nation, and he believes there is a legal – although untested – basis for separation.