The Republican Party of Texas (RPT) included a plank in its party platform that calls for a referendum on seceding from the United States. The platform was finalized as part of the RPT’s convention in Houston this weekend.
The push for a referendum on seceding is included under the “state sovereignty” section of the platform.
“Pursuant to Article 1, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our right of local self-government,” the section reads. “Therefore, federally mandated legislation that infringes upon the 10th Amendment rights of Texas should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified. Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto.”
The proposed referendum would be on the ballot in 2023.
Texas became independent in 1836 after breaking away from Mexico and then was annexed by the U.S. in 1845. Texas seceded from the Union in 1861 and then was readmitted in 1870, five years after the Confederacy was defeated in the Civil War.
In 1869, the Supreme Court ruled in Texas v. White that states cannot unilaterally choose to secede from the Union.
“The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration, or revocation, except through revolution, or through consent of the States,” according to the court.
“If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede,” the late Justice Antonin Scalia once wrote.
In early 2021, State Rep. Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredericksburg) filed a bill that called for a “Texit” referendum. Then RPT Chair Allen West endorsed the bill.
It would have placed a referendum on the November 2021 ballot asking Texans “Should the legislature of the State of Texas submit a plan for leaving the United States of America and establishing an independent republic?”
The referendum would have been nonbinding if passed by voters, but it also asked the State Legislature to “develop a plan for achieving Texas independence.”
After introducing the bill, Biedermann declared it was “time that the People of Texas are allowed the right to decide their own future.”
“Voters of all political persuasions in Texas can agree on one thing, Washington D.C. is and has been broken,” said Biedermann. “Our federal government continuously fails our working families, seniors, taxpayers, veterans and small business owners. For decades, the promises of America and our individual liberties have been eroding.”
The bill never received a hearing and garnered criticism from other lawmakers.
State Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) branded it a “disgrace to the Lone Star State” and the “very definition of seditious.”
In November, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that he, as a U.S. Senator, did not support the idea of Texas independence, but he understood why some people believed it was in the state’s best interests.
“If the Democrats end the filibuster, if they fundamentally destroy the country, if they pack the Supreme Court, if they make D.C. a state, if they federalize elections, if they massively expand voter fraud, there may come a point where it’s hopeless,” Cruz told a student at Texas A&M.
Daniel Miller, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM), said, “When we started the TNM, support for independence was polling in single digits, but we have always polled higher than the approval rating of the U.S. Congress.”
Now, TNM’s website boasts that more than 427,000 Texans support its organization, which seeks to “make Texas an independent nation again.”
Why waste time on this foolish pie in the sky idea ! If you don’t like being an american citizen leave go back to where you came from .
But I was born in Texas…..
Ridiculous that so many of these claiming to be the most patriotic Americans want Texas to be able to succeed from the Union, total non-sense.
In Section#33, it talks about the “right to secede” and Section #111 it states “Students shall pledge allegiance to the United States…” Last time I checked the Pledge of Allegiance refers to one nation, indivisible.
Can’t both support secession and an indivisible nation. So, you bunch of hypocrites, which is it?
jeff peploe
The geniuses that came up with this have never considered the trillions of dollars lost when the military bases are abandoned plus military manufacturing moved out of state.
Funny, you’re worried about military basses moving away. California’s “progressive”
government has closed more than half of our bases and now Tesla is moving to Texas.
You have nothing to worry about.
The entire west coast from Washington state to San Diego is now vulnerable thanks to “progressive” thinking.
If you’re falling off a cliff, your also making progress, just in the wrong direction.
Ok. Let’s just bury our heads in the sand and pretend we’re not gradually losing our freedoms in this country.
China has health passports and now we’re going in that direction. “Papers. Please!”
They can be revoked for ANY reason.
Texas is wrong for not wanting to be part of this?
They are already restricting our movement
and now raising gas tax so high that we can’t afford to travel far. COINCIDENCE? I don’t think so.
In my city they are. by their own admission
making it as difficult as possible to drive by putting in bike lanes where there’s no room for them.
They tried to invade our neighborhood and take away 10 feet of people’s property and one lane of a two lane road to put in a bike trail.
The while neighborhood showed up in city hall and still, the only thing that stopped them was emergency services saying it was a safety issue. They didn’t care about what the people that would have been affected thought about it.
WELCOME TO THE NEW AMERICA!
I have often wondered if Texas were to succeed could it sustain itself at current standards of living for the population. Meaning, health care, road and infrastructure, energy, education and welfare. According to an article I read recently, Federal grants account for about 35% of Texas revenue. Could Texas replace that 35% and remain a viable country? I think through oil and gas we could replace a great deal of it. We’d have to have revenue from oil wells drilled offshore in Texas waters of course. And probably institute some form of income tax. It’s an interesting question.
Texas Republicans are so ignorant that they would rather flounder as a country. I want to move, anywhere, just out of Texas.