Texit petition drive

Last night Dan Miller of the Texas Nationalist Movement made the Major Announcement he teed up ten days ago. Using a relatively obscure provision of Texas election law, he will start a petition drive to put the question of Texas independence on the Republican and Democratic primary ballots. At the same time the TNM will recruit challengers to all Texas officeholders who “chubbed” the Texit bill to death. This is a brilliant plan, and the best possible strategy to win Texas independence.

Current state of Texit

In January of 2021, Rep. Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Texas) introduced HB 1359, the Texas Independence Referendum Act. Rep. Biedermann had in fact announced his intention so to act in November of 2020. The bill would have placed the question of Texas independence, or “Texit,” on the ballot in November of 2021. And had the vote been yea, it would have required a joint legislative committee to study how to make Texit happen.

The bill died for lack of a hearing. Now Dan Miller accuses Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dade Phelan, and the chairman of the Texas House Committee on State Affairs of “making sure the Texit bill would never see the light of day.” By CNAV’s own observation, they did this in two ways:

1. They applied a filibuster-like tactic Texas calls “chubbing.” Which means killing a bill through procedural delays. In this case, the “chubbing” consisted of simple refusal to schedule a hearing.
2. They also played Kabuki theater to pretend to show concern for the chief way the federal government is now abusing Texas. We saw the introduction of a bill, HB 2862, that purported to finish the border wall along the Rio Grande. That, too, died for lack of a hearing. More recently Gov. Abbott declared a disaster, announced a policy of arresting illegal immigrants for aggravated trespass and similar offenses, and finishing the wall by executive order. His announcement was noticeably short on detail.

Gov. Abbott doesn’t mean it, and Dan Miller knows it

CNAV covered that announcement last week. Your editor remains skeptical today that the governor really means what he says. If he did mean what he says, he would have pushed HB 2862 through the Texas Legislature by hook or by crook. Even HB 2862 would have been better than nothing. And now he proposes to do the things HB 2862 provides, by executive order? Whom is he kidding?

Dave Hodges of The Common Sense Show laughed at the governor. “Maginot Line!” he giggled, in reference to the “impenetrable” French defenses, which the Wehrmacht simply marched around.

Hodges also pointed out something at which CNAV hinted: that several “powerful people” want to oust Gov. Abbott already. One of them might be former Senator Don Huffines (R-Dallas), who has already announced his drive to “primary” the Governor.

Last night, Dan Miller named names of those who killed Texit in the legislature this year. He put Gov. Abbott at the top of his list. In fact, he did not even mention Gov. Abbott’s disaster declaration or his executive order. That, to CNAV, suggests one thing only: these things are of no moment to Miller. He regards them as operationally meaningless. Which indeed they might be.

The Texit petition drive

Dan Miller essentially returned to the threat he made at the beginning of the year. Namely that Texans would get a referendum on Texit this year, or Texans would force a “referendum” on political officeholders next year. We now have arrived at that point.

Miller found an obscure provision, Section 172.0788 of the Texas Election Code, which he plans to use. Section 172.088 provides that:

Voters by petition may require that a proposal to include a demand for specific legislation or any other matter in a political party’s platform or resolutions be submitted to a vote in the party’s general primary election by placement on the general primary election ballot.

Miller calculates that he needs 76,854 signatures to succeed. To get them, he is actively recruiting petition circulators and has set up a certification program. His Petition page even has a directory of notaries public who can certify petition signatures.

TNM has several “meet up” events on schedule throughout Texas. These will now become Texit petition-signing opportunities.

Without question this drive faces serious obstacles. Gathering 76,854 signatures will be difficult enough. But the same person might not be allowed to sign petitions for the Republican and Democratic primary ballots, both at once. Subsection c of Section 172.0788 lets each Party make a rule that only registered Party members may petition their Party to put such a question on that Party’s primary ballot.

An effective tool

Nevertheless, this petition drive will be a highly effective tool. Even getting this question on the Republican primary ballot will be significant enough. It will draw those interested in Texas independence to that primary – and turnout is always a problem with primaries. To overturn an official “Party Line” on candidates, challengers need the highest turnout they can get. A Texas independence question on the ballot will virtually guarantee a high turnout of challenger-supporting Party members.

This means that Senator Huffines might easily get the nomination to become Governor Huffines. Of course, this assumes that he can get Dan Miller’s endorsement – and the TNM site doesn’t mention him. Dan Miller said he had challengers for everyone who stalled his bill – but he didn’t say who they are.

A yea vote on the Texit petition on the Republican ballot would still help usher in a new set of candidates who have committed themselves to independence. On the Democratic side, not so much – perhaps. But it’s still worth trying. And then in the general election, Texas independence will be a campaign issue.

List of earlier articles relating to Texas independence and readiness