Texas Republicans Push For Secession Referendum At Annual Convention

On Saturday, Texas Republicans voted on a motion regarding whether the state party should support a referendum for Texas to secede from the United States and become an independent country.

According to Newsweek, the proposal read: “Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto.”

This and other motions were voted on at the Republican Party of Texas annual convention in San Antonio, held May 23-25.

The Texas GOP previously made headlines in 2022 when it included a similar motion calling for an independence referendum in its party platform following a convention vote. In 2023, former Republican Texas State Representative Bryan Slaton introduced legislation for a referendum on whether the state “should reassert its status as an independent nation,” but the bill did not advance out of the State Affairs committee.

The Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM), which campaigns for Texas independence, was active at the convention. The group shared photos of supporters holding “TEXIT NOW!” signs and engaged with delegates and attendees.

“The will of Republicans Primary voters is clear,” the TNM wrote on an X/Twitter post. “They want a VOTE on TEXIT! It’s time the RPT supports the will of their own party and not establishment politicians.”

In February, Newsweek conducted a poll and asked Texas about a hypothetical independence referendum. Of the 814 eligible voters who responded, 23 percent would vote for the state to become “an independent country,” while 67 percent would support Texas remaining “a state within the United States.”

The proposal underscores the rising tensions between the federal and Texan authorities in recent months. In January, the Supreme Court ruled that federal agents could remove razor wire placed along the Texas-Mexico border by the state’s National Guard, an action ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott to deter illegal immigration. Abbott responded by claiming his state was being “invaded” and invoked Texas’s “constitutional authority to defend and protect itself.”

Abbott also instructed universities and community colleges in Texas to ignore a Biden administration update to Title IX equality legislation, which bans discrimination based on gender identity in educational institutions.