Texas Secession Vote in March. Threat to sue GOP to ensure it is on March Ballot.

[Polds4OSU]

In 2022, the Texas State Republican Convention approved a platform outlined in a 40-page document that Texas hold a referendum in 2023 "for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation."

It said: "Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto."

Daniel Miller and members of the Texas National Movement delivered 139,456 signatures to the Republican Party headquarters in Austin. Miller said there were 170,097 signatures in total, but 30,426 were rejected because some forms had been incorrectly completed. A further 215 removal requests were honored, he said.

Speaking on the Texas News podcast, Miller said he "expects this to be on the ballot in March" during the Texas primaries.

"Do I believe it is going to be as easy as dropping off almost 140,000 signatures at the RPT office? No, I don't… They cannot and will not let this happen without a fight," he said.


According to the Texas election code, the minimum number of signatures needed for a referendum to be considered is "five percent of the total vote received by all candidates for governor in the party's most recent gubernatorial general primary election."

This refers to the most recent Republican gubernatorial primary in 2022 when 1,954,172 votes were cast, electing incumbent State Governor Greg Abbott. A total of 97,709 signatures are therefore needed.

The State Republican Executive Committee was due to decide ballot propositions for March 2024 earlier this month. Currently, no statewide ballot measures are certified to be on the March ballot.

The Texas Independence Referendum Act, often referred to as "TEXIT," was introduced by then-state representative Bryan Slaton in March this year, but did not get out of its committee stage.


Miller said he already has attorneys willing to help with his case if the Republican Party reject the request to put the issue on the 2024 ballot.

The issue is contentious and Miller said on the podcast that the petition was delivered in secret because he feels the need to be "careful."

"It was a matter of being safe," he said on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, adding that somebody had threatened him and was "wishing death" on him.

 

[CowboyJD]

As a native born Texan, I'd be down for dual citizenship and two passports.

 

[Okstatekerr]

 

[Heart Smiles]

The Longhorns will be the national champions of Texas. They will play Texas A& M. Texas Tech, Baylor will be in the semifinals with Texas and Texas A&M.

 

[Polds4OSU]

Texas Supreme Court has Rejected the Texas Nationalist Movement lawsuit against the Texas GOP who Refused to accept a Petition to force Texas to include Secession on the March Primary Ballot

https://twitter.com/x/status/1745201682722463759

The Texas Supreme Court has refused to take up a case filed against the state Republican Party after it rejected a petition calling for a vote on Texas independence to be included on its March primary ballot.

The case was brought by the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM), a group campaigning for the state to leave the United States and become a fully independent country. On Wednesday, the TNM's petition, with 139,456 signatures, was denied outright, sparking an angry response from secessionist campaigners.


Texan nationalists have received a number of major boosts over the past few years, with the Texas GOP backing calls for a referendum on whether the state "should reassert its status as an independent nation" at its June 2022 convention.

Texas state Representative Bryan Slaton introduced legislation in March 2023 that would have triggered a referendum on "whether or not the State should investigate the possibility of Texas independence," though it failed to move past the committee stage.

Last month, TNM President Daniel Miller delivered a petition calling for a "TEXIT" referendum to the state GOP headquarters in Austin, well over the 97,709 signatures required to get a vote added to the primary ballot.

Texas Republican Party Chair Matt Rinaldi rejected the petition, claiming "the vast majority of petition signatures were invalid." He said some were missing essential information such as "residence address, county of registration, and date of birth/voter registration number." Other names were invalid, while only 8,300 of the signatures had been submitted by hand, rather than electronically, which Rinaldi claimed was a requirement. The Texas GOP also said the delivery of the petition was "untimely," with it being received on the deadline, as opposed to the day before.


In response, the TNM on Wednesday announced it had filed an emergency petition to the state Supreme Court vowing to "fight for your right of self-government." Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Paul M. Davis, a member of the TNM legal team, wrote: "Rinaldi didn't think we could get this filed because of his strategic delay. But a ragtag heroic group of paralegals, law clerks, and myself got it done and filed even though none of us had any appellate procedure experience to speak of because we needed to fight for the 140,000 Texans who have a lawful right for the #TEXIT referendum to appear on the Republican primary ballot."



But the legal bid was rejected almost immediately, with a court saying: "Today the Supreme Court of Texas denied the petition for writ of mandamus in the above-referenced case."

Rinaldi shared Davis' initial post on X alongside the court decision, adding: "He should really check his inbox."


Davis later posted: "Well, we did everything we could but the Supreme Court of Texas screwed us. Didn't even want to look at the petition TNM submitted to Rinaldi to see if what we said was true. Just 'nope.' No explanation. No nothing.

"This is what the Texas GOP Republican establishment thinks of Texans. You don't have the right to petition your government. You're the 'wrong type' of voter according to Matt Rinaldi. The establishment won today, but we are not going away."


Joshua Blank, an expert in state politics at the University of Texas at Austin and research director of the Texas Politics Project, told Newsweek last month that he could see "no plausible scenario in which Texas could peacefully extract itself from the United States."

 

[steross]

As a native born Texan, I'd be down for dual citizenship and two passports.

You might be less excited by it if the nation of Texas follows the US lead and become the only other nation with citizenship-based taxation.

 

[CowboyJD]

You might be less excited by it if the nation of Texas follows the US lead and become the only other nation with citizenship-based taxation.

Well, it’s never gonna happen so it’s a moot point anyway.