Texas Independence Fight Headed for Court

A pro-Texas independence movement has said it will take the state Republican party to court after it rejected its proposal to put the question of secession on the ballot in 2024.

The Texas Nationalist Movement (TEXIT) said state Republicans had a day to reconsider their decision not to include the issue during state primaries in March next year. Newsweek has contacted the Texas GOP and TEXIT for comment on Friday.

In an open letter, Republican Party of Texas Chairman Matt Rinaldi said the vast majority of the 139,456 signatures delivered to the Republican Party headquarters in Austin earlier this month were invalid. Rinaldi added that the petition missed the December 10 deadline and that "electronic signatures are not allowed."

Rinaldi wrote: "The vast majority of petition signatures were invalid. A number of the signatures omitted one or all of the residence address, county of registration, and date of birth/voter registration number. Many contained invalid voter names. Only an estimated 8,300 of the purported 139,000 signatures were in the petition signer's own handwriting."

Rinaldi cited part of the Texas election code that states the signature is the only part of a petition document that must appear in the "signer's own handwriting." TEXIT argues that part of the Texas Business and Commerce Code makes the signatures valid. "If a law requires a signature, an electronic signature satisfies the law," the code says.

Previously, TEXIT said it had rejected 30,426 because some of the forms were not correctly completed.

On December 27, TEXIT said on X, formerly Twitter, that the Texas GOP had a day to reconsider or legal action would be taken. "24 hours is up as of now," TEXIT tweeted a day later.

In a statement, TEXIT leader Daniel Miller said: "It is clear that the Republican Party of Texas is grasping for any tactic, no matter how ridiculous, to suppress the voices of Republican voters who merely want their voices heard on this fundamental issue of governance.

"We hereby reject the decision of the Republican Party of Texas and fully intend to litigate to secure the rights of the petition signers as guaranteed by the Texas Election Code," Miller added.

A ballot "for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation" in the March primaries would not be legally binding and would serve only as an advisory vote.

The issue of secession is contentious. After Rinaldi's letter was posted, Texas State Representative Jared Patterson said that "American traitors will not get their initiative on the Republican primary ballot this March."

Patterson added on X: "Their candidates shouldn't get the support of Republican voters either."

Questions approved by the Texas GOP to appear on the March ballot include if a 'Border Protection Unit' should be created, urging Congress not to grant amnesty for illegal aliens, and banning the sale of state land to buyers from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.