Texans Warned About 'Practical Challenges of Secession' Ahead of Super Tuesday
© AFP 2023 / DANIEL SLIM
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There is nothing new in Texan politicians raising the prospect of seceding from the US. But such calls gained fresh momentum in January during the escalating border standoff between Texas and the federal government, over Governor Greg Abbott decision to install barbed wire along the border with Mexico.
As Super Tuesday nears, Texan voters have been cautioned against casting their ballots for a growing number of pro-secession candidates.
Presidential primaries and caucuses will take place in over a dozen states on March 5, with Republican and Democrat contenders hoping to win enough delegates to seal their nomination as presidential candidate.
The Dallas Morning News ran a story on March 2 — Texas independence day — warning that many candidates for the Lone Star state’s House of Representatives and other offices have signed the “Take Texas Back” pledge.
The pledge requires candidates to "vow their commitment to a contract with Texans, promising to vote and act solely in the best interests of Texans" if they are elected. Those who sign it also promise to legislate for a referendum for Texan independence.
"Those who refuse will be met with a clear and uncompromising warning. We will actively recruit, train, and support opponents who embody true Texas First values, while exposing the voting records of those who contradict these values," states the pledge.
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The Dallas Morning News editorial said over 150 people have already signed the pledge, including a host of GOP candidates in North Texas.
Many of the signatories have reportedly received campaign donations from the Texans United for a Conservative Majority political action committee (PAC) — said to be funded by 68-year-old West Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn, a self-described devout Christian, immigration hardliner, founder and CEO of Crownquest.
Signatories to the pledge are not "thinking far ahead about the real-life consequences of their statements," said the newspaper, stressing that the movement's website "does not identify how an independent Texas would be funded in absence of federal money that currently comprises about 30 percent of our state's budget."
"The practical challenges to establishing an independent nation are sizable and cannot be patched over with extreme rhetoric," concluded the op-ed.
A man walks with a rifle with a Texas flag attached to it during a Police Appreciation rally at the City Hall in Houston, Texas on June 18, 2020.
© AFP 2023 / MARK FELIX
Daniel Miller, who set up the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) in 2005, hit back that the paper's warning "neglects a core issue."
"The editorial's alarm over the financial implications of Texas independence similarly betrays a lack of faith, not just in Texas' robust economy but in the very spirit of Texan innovation and resilience," Miller said in a press release. "The Lone Star State is not merely a participant in the federal system out of financial necessity but has thrived and contributed significantly to the union's prosperity. The suggestion that Texas could not navigate the complexities of independence is not only baseless but underestimates the talent, resourcefulness, and determination of Texans."
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Texas, which existed as a self-governing republic from 1836 until 1846 after seceding from Mexico, is seen as one of the most independent-minded states in the US. Texan politicians occasionally raise the prospect of seceding from the United States, as it did in 1861 in the run-up to the American Civil War.
Last year the TNM gathered 100,000 petition signatures required for a non-binding secession referendum on the Texas Republican primary ballot.
But in December, Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi rejected the petition, claiming the “vast majority” of the signatures were invalid. Texas law does not allow for electronic petitions, and only 8,300 of the submitted signatures were hand-written.
The secession issue was revived in January during the escalating dispute between Texas and the Biden administration over the surge of illegal immigration from Mexico.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” began busing thousands of immigrants to Washington DC, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver and Los Angeles in April of 2022. He insisted that the operation “continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden administration’s refusal to secure the border.”
As Texas reeled from the massive influx of undocumented immigrants, Abbott ordered razor-wire barriers installed along the border with Mexico in January. The US Supreme Court, however, ruled that the Biden administration could authorize the removal of the 29-mile barrier.
Twenty-five state governors came out in support of Abbott defiance of the White House over the issue. Pundits told Sputnik that the US federal system was "collapsing along many different fault lines."
