A Texas secessionist movement threatened to sue the state Republican Party as it seeks to ask voters if they would support the idea of Texas leaving the US and reasserting its “status as an independent nation” on the 2024 GOP primary ballot.
According to a report by the Houston Chronicle, the Texas Nationalist Movement – also known as Texit – said it hopes to place an advisory vote on the ballot asking Republican voters if they support Texas secession.
State law requires about 97,000 signatures to put the advisory vote on the ballot. Daniel Miller, president of the Texit group, said they collected 139,456 signatures and submitted them before the Dec. 11 deadline.
On Wednesday, the Texit group posted on X/Twitter a letter to Chairman Matt Rinaldi threatening to sue the GOP if they do not include the succession question on the ballot.
“We will give you 24 hours to reconsider your decision and deliver notice directly to me that 139,456 petition signers will have their proposition placed on the ballot. Failing that action on the part of the Republican Party of Texas, it appears that you and I will spend the first part of 2024 in court.”
Rinaldi said in an open letter that the “vast majority” of the signatures were invalid.
The Texas GOP recently released the 2024 Republican primary ballot propositions, but the secession question was not included. The propositions include questions on border security, property tax elimination, school choice, and vaccine consent, among others.
Users on X/Twitter responded to the announcement by asking why the GOP did not include the secession question on the ballot.
Still, the Texas GOP platform encourages the state legislature to authorize a statewide referendum to determine whether Texas should secede and that the state has the right to do so.
Miller said an untested legal theory could allow Texas to leave the U.S., but historians and legal experts have long said secession is unconstitutional and a bad idea overall.
In the 1860s, 11 states seceded from the U.S., leading to the Civil War, which resulted in about 620,000 deaths.
