Texas GOP Moves Toward Vote On Seceding From Union

Final Vote Saturday On Whether Proposal Will Appear On Primary Ballot

Texas GOP leaders are set to vote Saturday on whether to place a measure on the March 1 ballot in favor of seceding from the Union. 

The proposal cleared the Texas Republican Party’s Resolutions Committee on Friday and is set for a vote by the 40-member State Republican Executive Committee on Saturday. 

If it passes, the resolution would place a non-binding measure on the primary ballot in favor of secession, and one recent poll suggests that GOP voters would approve it. 

“If the federal government continues to disregard the constitution and the sovereignty of the State of Texas, the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation,” the resolution states. 

A 2014 Reuters poll found that one in four Americans support the idea of secession, including one-third of all Texans and a whopping 53 percent of Republicans in the Lone Star State. 

Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Crystal Kay Perkins slammed the proposal after it cleared the Resolutions Committee on Friday. 

“This is one of the most un-American, unpatriotic things we have seen from the Republican Party of Texas in a while. It clearly proves one thing: the Tea Party has taken over the Republican Party. Rest in peace, GOP,” Kay Perkins said. “This should worry every hardworking Texan, because this is the same party that controls the majority of our state government. Just another day at the weird and wacky Republican Party of Texas?”

State GOP leaders have said they doubt the resolution will survive an Executive Committee vote, but members who responded to The Houston Chronicle this week were split on the issue. 

The resolution was introduced by Executive Committee member Tanya Robertson after the Texas Nationalist Movement, a secessionist group, reportedly failed to gather the 75,000 signatures needed to get secession on the primary ballot. 

“There’s been a big groundswell of Texans that are getting into the Texas independence issue,” Robertson told the Chronicle. “I believe conservatives in Texas should have a choice to voice their opinion.”

Another Executive Committee member who supports the resolution, Karl Voigtsberger, said the goal is “just to find out where the majority of Texas Republican primary voters are on this topic.” Voigtsberger also said the resolution would “send a message” to Washington that “things are so broke right now that we’re considering independence.” 

Texas became an independent republic after splitting off from Mexico in 1836, but later joined the Union in 1845. 

In 1861, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that secession is illegal, and the federal government would be compelled to use force against any state that tries to leave the Union. 

While some in the Texas GOP have attempted to distance the party from the secessionist movement, there’s plenty of crossover.

Former Gov. Rick Perry once advocated secession, and current Gov. Greg Abbott likes to boast about how many times he’s sued the federal government. 

Earlier this year, the vast majority of Republican legislators signed a letter in support of defying the U.S. Supreme Court on same-sex marriage. In 2014, a secessionist Republican candidate for governor, Larry Kilgore, advocated the death penalty for gays. 

UPDATE:
The vote failed, so for now at least secession will not be on the ballot. These tweets tell an interesting story:

 

All images via Texas Nationalist Movement/Facebook