TEXIT Bill Proposes Vote on Texas Seceding From the US Ahead of 2024
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A state lawmaker filed a bill in the Texas legislature on Monday to allow the state’s residents to vote on whether or not the state should investigate seceding from the United States.
State Rep. Bryan Slaton, a Republican, filed HB 3596, commonly known as the “TEXIT Referendum Act” (pdf), in a bid to put the issue on the ballot at the next general election.
The idea of state sovereignty is not a new platform for the Texas GOP. However, the Texit bill proposes something new by calling for a vote on the matter.
If the bill passes and a majority of Texans vote “yes,” a committee would be established to investigate the feasibility of independence and propose options and potential plans to the Texas legislature.
“The Texas Constitution is clear that all political power resides in the people,” Slaton said in a statement. “After decades of continuous abuse of our rights and liberties by the federal government, it is time to let the people of Texas make their voices heard.”
Similar legislation was filed by state Rep. Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredericksburg) in 2021 during the 87th Legislature, where it was referred to the State Affairs committee and failed to receive a hearing, and died.
Slaton is hopeful that his Texit bill will fare better, providing Texans with an opportunity to “make their voices heard” by voting on the future of their state.
The bill, which comes on the 187th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, is part of a long-standing desire for liberty and self-governance that Slaton said “continues to burn in the hearts of all Texans.”
The fall of the Alamo, during the 1836 battle between Mexican forces and a group of Texans, became a rallying cry for Texans fighting for independence against overwhelming odds in the Texas Revolution.
After gaining independence from Mexico in 1836, Texas became a republic. It joined the United States in 1845, and seceded in 1861 due to disagreements over state autonomy and slavery expansion, leading to the Civil War. It was readmitted to the Union in 1870 during the Reconstruction period.
State Sovereignty
Daniel Miller, president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, responded to Slaton’s announcement, calling it “great news” and urged Texans to contact their state representatives asking them to support the Texit bill.
In a previous interview with The Epoch Times’ “Crossroads” program, Miller argued that the power to decide whether to secede lies with the people of Texas.
“What we know is the United States Constitution, in Article 10, lists out all the things that states are prohibited from doing. There’s no prohibition against a state withdrawing. It’s not in the [U.S.] Constitution,” Miller said. “In addition, it says specifically in the tenth amendment [that] any power not given to the federal government by that constitution are reserved to the people and to the states.”
State sovereignty was one of the issues adopted by the 2022 State Convention of the Texas GOP in June of that year, where it was voted to urge the state legislature to put Texit on the ballot in 2023.
At the convention, the party platform contained a “plank”—a policy position the party promotes—under the heading of “State Sovereignty.”
Citing Article 1, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution, the plank stated that the federal government has infringed upon the rights of Texans for self-government and, therefore, federally mandated legislation should be opposed, refused, and nullified.
“Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto,” the plank states (pdf).
In further comments, Miller explained Texit was similar to other movements in Scotland in 2014 and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom.
“It’s a very similar situation,” he said, adding that the difference in Texas was that the state doesn’t have “citizen initiative.”
“So we can’t—no matter how many signatures we collect—we cannot force something on the ballot,” Miller said. He explained that Texans would need to engage their lawmakers and urge them to put a statute in place that would allow them to vote on the matter.
Second Attempt
When Biedermann introduced his version of the bill in 2021, he also cited the authority given by the Texas Constitution to secede.
The state constitution states that Texans “have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient.”
“For decades, the promises of America and our individual liberties have been eroding. It is now time that the people of Texas are allowed the right to decide their own future,” Biedermann said at the time.
Texit was a feature of the Texas gubernatorial primary in 2022, with Gov. Greg Abbott’s two main challengers favoring the platform. Abbott’s challengers ultimately lost.
In debate about the legitimacy of secession, the 1896 Texas v. White case is often cited as evidence against it. The Supreme Court ruled that the United States is an “indestructible union,” and no state can secede, even if a majority of Texans support it.
However, according to Miller, this ruling is based on the wording of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, which is not legally binding, as established in the 1904 case Jacobson v. Massachusetts.
With the ninth-largest economy in the world, Miller has said that Texas could operate and care for itself more efficiently on its own.
