Texans Wanting to Leave US Blame Republican for Making Them Stay

The Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) is blaming the chairman of the state Republican Party for blocking its efforts to allow Texans to leave the U.S.

TNM President Daniel Miller wrote a letter to Governor Greg Abbott Tuesday expressing his frustrations with Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi’s recent decision to reject a petition from the TMN to place the question of Texas secession on the 2024 primary ballot.

“But for the actions of the Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi, in violation of the Texas Election Code, Texans would have an opportunity in March to debate and vote on whether they believe Texas should continue its relationship with a federal government that actively opposed the security of our international border with Mexico,” Miller said.

Newsweek reached out to TNM, the Republican Party of Texas and Abbott via email for comment.

TNM, also known as TEXIT, is the largest organization promoting Texas independence. With the help of current and former lawmakers who have appeared or supported the idea of Texas as its own nation, the Texas secessionist movement has become emboldened in recent months.

Last month, TNM turned in over 139,000 signatures to the state GOP, supporting the placement of a proposition on the Texas Republican primary ballot that asks voters: “Should the State of Texas reassert its status as an independent nation?” Petitioners hoping to get referendums on the ballot needed to submit at least 97,709 valid signatures before the December 11 deadline.

Rinaldi addressed the effort in a December 27 letter. He informed Miller that because the organization submitted the petition on the December 11 deadline rather than the day before, when “petitions must have been filed,” and that because the “vast majority” of the signatures filed were invalid, the Texas GOP was rejecting the effort to put a nonbinding secession referendum on the March 5 primary ballot.

For petition signatures to be valid, Rinaldi said, they must have appeared on the petition in the signer’s own handwriting, meaning electronic signatures are not allowed. The Republican Party of Texas said it determined that only 8,300 of the 139,456 submitted were in the signer’s handwriting, while the rest were filed electronically.

“For these reasons, the voter petitions delivered by the Texas Nationalist Movement on December 11 are rejected as untimely and, even if they had been timely submitted, do not contain the required 97,709 valid signatures to place a matter on the 2024 Republican Primary ballot,” Rinaldi wrote in the letter.

In response, Miller accused the state GOP of trying to “suppress the voices of Republican voters” and failing to follow a new state law that allows for electronic signatures to be accepted.

Miller complained about Rinaldi’s decision again on Tuesday, telling Abbott in his letter, “The power to determine how Texas is governed does not lie with the federal courts. It is, by right, reserved to the people of Texas. It’s time to let the people speak.”

Experts have long held that Texas independence is illegal and unconstitutional and could lead to economic catastrophe for both the state and the U.S. as a whole. But the movement, which first gained traction in the 1990s, has grown in recent years amid rising distrust in America’s political system.

This year, state Senator Bob Hall spoke at the first TNM conference. In 2022, three of Abbott’s conservative primary challengers agreed to participate in a town hall held by the organization.

Additionally, the movement’s website says that more than 100 officeholders and candidates—including Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller—have signed a pledge to support secession if voters do.