Texas Republicans are pushing for a referendum to decide whether Texas should secede from the United States.
The demand for Texans to be allowed to vote on this issue in 2023 was one of the many measures adopted in the Texas GOP’s party platform. They just had their state convention this last week in Houston.
Under a section titled “State Sovereignty,” the platform states: “Pursuant to Article 1, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our right of local self-government. 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.”
In another section on state governance, the platform states that Texas Republicans want to pass a bill in its next session the state Legislature “requiring a referendum in the 2023 general election for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”
Newsweek reported:
It’s not clear how popular the effort is among Texans, but the Texas Nationalist Movement’s website claims almost half a million Texans support its work to “make Texas an independent nation again.”
The movement’s efforts have been promoted by Texas Republicans. Last year, state Representative Kyle Bidermann introduced a bill that called for a “Texit” referendum, which was endorsed by Texas GOP chairman Allen West.
Many are also against the secession of Texas from the U.S. Republican state Representative Jeff Leach called it a “disgrace to the Lone Star State” and the “very definition of seditious.”
Justice Antonin Scalia said, “If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede.”
Allen West, former chairman of the Texas GOP said, “Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution. The Texas GOP will always stand for the Constitution and for the rule of law even while others don’t.”
“I do support the will of the people to be heard and allow the people to vote on this. But I will tell you my official position is that I want Texas to lead, not so much to secede,” he added.
Texas declared independence from Mexico in 1836 and spent nine years as its own nation before coming a part of the U.S. Texas seceded from the United States in 1861 to join the Confederacy and then was readmitted to join following the end of the Civil War in 1870.
