Texas GOP official wants secession on the primary ballot

If Texas ever regained its independence, see what it would look like. If Texas ever regained its independence, see what it would look like. Photo: Nathan Hunsinger, Associated Press Photo: Nathan Hunsinger, Associated Press Image 1 of / 74 Caption Close Texas GOP official wants secession on the primary ballot 1 / 74 Back to Gallery

A member of the executive committee for the Republican Party of Texas plans to introduce a resolution at the group's next meeting, which would add to the party's primary ballot a non-binding measure for Texas secession. Party leadership calls the prospect unlikely.

Tanya Robertson, State Republican Executive Committee member for Senate District 11, which covers parts of Harris, Galveston and Brazoria counties, said she'll present the resolution at the committee's December 4 meeting in Austin, and that she already has support from a few other members.

"There's been a big groundswell of Texans that are getting into the Texas independence issue," she said, citing conversations she's had with constituents. "I believe conservatives in Texas should have a choice to voice their opinion."

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Texas GOP chairman Tom Mechler said Tuesday that many resolutions are presented each year for consideration on the primary ballot, but that he did not believe sufficient support existed within the SREC to approve the secession item.

Still, Robertson will present the resolution to a 12-member resolutions committee, which will decide whether or not it will face the full 60-member assembly on December 5 for a vote on its placement on the March 1 ballot.

Robertson got the idea for the resolution from the Texas Nationalist Movement, a small secessionist group that has tried but so far failed to raise the necessary 75,000 signatures to put a non-binding secession vote on the March ballot. When she heard that news she thought she could help, though she isn't a member of the TNM.

She cited dissatisfaction with politicians in Washington D.C. and dismay with federal spending as reasons for a secession vote.

The non-binding vote would essentially serve as an opinion survey of statewide Republicans. It would not compel the state to secede if approved.

Karl Voigtsberger, SREC member from senate district 8 near Fort Worth, said he is "fully supportive" of the resolution "just to find out where the majority of Texas Republican primary voters are on this topic."

Several polls have explored that notion before. A 2009 Rasmussen survey found 18 percent of Texas would opt to secede, while seven percent were undecided.

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In September 2014, Reuters reported "1 in 4 Americans are open to secession," with the highest support for secession—34 percent--in the three-state Southwest region that includes Texas.

Reuters asked 9,000 people across the country, "Do you support or oppose the idea of your state peacefully withdrawing from the United States of American and the federal government?"

Experts have said Texas would face an exceptionally difficult path to independence. Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled secession illegal in 1861, the federal government would be compelled to use force against any state's attempt to leave the union.

Voigtsberger also said the non-binding vote would "send a message" to Washington D.C. that "things are so broke right now that we're considering independence."