Texas Gets One Step Closer to Leaving US
Andrew StantonDec 01, 2023 at 2:50 PM ESTAdvocates for Texas' secession from the United States believe they are on the verge of scoring a crucial victory.
The Texas Republican Party's executive committee is set to vote over the weekend on which ballot propositions voters will decide during the Republican primary elections in March 2024. One measure would ask Republican voters, "Should the State of Texas reassert its status as an independent nation?"
Ahead of the vote, the Texas Nationalist Movement, an organization that supports Texas' independence from the U.S., warned the GOP they have enough signatures to force a vote on the question of whether they support secession.
Texas nationalists have for years pushed for a referendum on Texas secession, despite the fact there is no provision for a state to secede in the U.S. Constitution. The state seceded from Mexico in 1836 and spent nine years as its own nation before becoming a U.S. state. It also seceded from the Union in 1861 before being readmitted following the end of the Civil War in 1870.
The Texas State Capitol as seen on September 20, 2021. Texas nationalists said they have enough signatures to force the state GOP to place a question about secession on primary ballots next year. Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images
"In June of this year, our organization launched a petition campaign under the Texas Election Code 172.088. This section of the Election Code allows voters, by petition, to place a question on a party's primary ballot. In short, by collecting 97,709 signatures and submitting them by the filing deadline on December 11, 2023, we could actually bypass the SREC's ballot proposition process and compel the party to place the question on the ballot," the letter reads.
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Newsweek reached out to the Texas Republican Party for comment via email.
If the question makes the primary ballot and passes, it would not be legally binding nor would it mean Texas is actually seceding from the U.S. Still, it would be a key victory for secession advocates, who critics view as a fringe belief that would face significant hurdles in a general election.
The letter notes that the question would be "advisory only" and offers Republican voters to share their thoughts on whether the state should become an independent nation.
The organization argued that the party, by including the question on the ballot, would not be "endorsing a specific outcome" but instead backing the principle that "app perspectives within the party deserve consideration."
"Placing 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," the letter reads. "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."
The latest effort to push for a vote on secession also comes as Texas undergoes a major political shift. Texas' cities and suburbs, once ruby-red areas that kept the state safely Republican, have shifted toward Democrats in recent election cycles, with President Joe Biden flipping suburban counties outside of Austin and Dallas during the 2020 presidential election.
The Democratic shift has sparked questions about the political future of the state, as the state GOP has also faced heightened infighting as its margins continue to slip.
