Folks who want Texas to be its own country (again) are thrilled after last week’s election brought 10 new Republicans to the state legislature who’ve all committed to backing the secessionist movement.
This is somehow the least weird thing that’s happened in the last seven days: The Texas Nationalist Movement, which bills itself as “the largest organization promoting Texas independence,” trumpeted to its 209,000 Facebook followers last Wednesday that the 10 incoming legislators, who all won seats in the state House of Representatives, had signed its “Texas First Pledge.” By signing, they apparently promised to “vote for legislation and resolutions to call for a vote on Texas reasserting its status as an independent nation” and to “work toward a fair and expedient separation of Texas from the federal government.”
Texas nationalists aim to withdraw the Lone Star State from the union to establish a fully independent nation. Texas previously existed as the independent Republic of Texas from 1836 to 1846, prior to joining the United States — something your uncle will never shut up about.
Seceding is one of those things that some Texans like to joke about, with a little dash of state pride — but it’s a little messed up that several incoming lawmakers have actually signed a pledge to make that happen, considering that one, extremely bloody time the U.S. entered a Civil War over states trying to secede. It would also make a lot of our problems a lot worse really quickly.
A day after the election, the Texas National Movement posted on Facebook: “The voice of Texas independence just got a whole lot louder. From the halls of the Legislature to local courthouses, supporters of the Texas First Pledge secured victories that will reshape our state’s political landscape.”
“This isn’t just a victory — it’s a revolution in Texas politics,” they added. “The old guard’s lies about supporting a TEXIT vote making a candidate ‘unelectable’ were shattered last night.”
The group said that the incoming pro-secession legislators were: David Lowe in House District 91 in the Fort Worth area; Shelley Luther in District 62, which includes Sherman; Keresa Richardson in District 61, which includes parts of McKinney; Brent Money in District 2, which includes areas east of DFW; A.J. Louderback in District 30, which includes Victoria and parts of the Gulf coast; Wesley Virdell in District 53, aka a big chunk of Central and West Texas; Janis Holt in District 18 in Southeast Texas; Andy Hopper in District 64, which includes Denton; Steve Toth in District 15, aka The Woodlands near Houston; and Mitch Little in District 65, which is the suburbs north of DFW.
If you’re wondering, no, Texas can’t legally decide to up and leave the United States.
There was that thing called the Civil War, which pretty definitively established that states could not legally secede.
“The legality of seceding is problematic,” Eric McDaniel, an associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Texas Tribune. “The Civil War played a very big role in establishing the power of the federal government and cementing that the federal government has the final say in these issues.”
But that hasn’t stopped people from filing pointless secession bills.
Last year, state Rep. Bryan Slayton (who has since been formally expelled from the Legislature over alleged sexual misconduct) introduced the Texas Independence Referendum Act to the Texas House, which would have place a referendum on the 2024 election ballot to decide “whether or not the State should investigate the possibility of Texas independence, and present potential plans to the Legislature.” It failed to get out of committee.
But secessionists were undeterred.
In an interview with Newsweek, TNM President Daniel Miller said he expects that one of the lawmakers elected on Tuesday who signed the Texas First Pledge would introduce similar legislation.
“This next session will likely see the Texas Independence Referendum Act filed again,” he said. “However, we’ll be advocating for and working with legislators on a whole host of policy initiatives involving the border, currency and more. All of this is because the closer we can move Texas to structurally and operationally functioning like an independent nation, the easier separation becomes once we get and win the TEXIT referendum.”
We want to make a joke at this point, but given that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk will probably have prominent positions in the next presidential administration, who the fuck knows what will happen anymore.
