DALLAS - The state Republican Party turned back a move to allow Texans to decide whether to secede from the United States but not before a raucous debate between vocal supporters and opponents who blasted the move as a national embarrassment.

After nearly an hour of arguing, delegates by a voice vote struck down a proposed amendment to the party platform that would have allowed a statewide vote on whether "to reassert Texas' status as an independent nation," under provisions in the Texas Constitution.

The delegates left in the platform wording asserting that "the federal government has impaired our right of local self-government," as a prelude to secession.

During the debate, supporters of a secession - who wore shirts with the Sam Houston quote, "Texas will again lift its head and stand among the nations" - loudly booed opponents. They cited federal policies they assert have restricted personal liberties and states' rights, allowing abortions and federal mandates they view as increasingly oppressive as a reason why such a vote is needed.

"I say we secede now and this platform language is a start," yelled one delegate as party Chairman Tom Mechler tried to restore order so conventioneers could hear speakers.

Back to Gallery State GOP rejects secession proposal 6 1 of 6 Photo: Paul Moseley, MBR 2 of 6 Photo: Rodger Mallison, MBR 3 of 6 Photo: Rodger Mallison, TNS 4 of 6 Photo: Rodger Mallison, TNS 5 of 6 Photo: Rodger Mallison, TNS 6 of 6 Photo: Rodger Mallison, TNS











"Don't just vote aye, vote hell aye - for your children and grandchildren," said another supporter, as he urged a vote on the secession wording.

Opponents of secession, which appeared to have more supporters than in recent years, were just as vocal.

"As Republicans, it is not our goal to divorce the United States," Hayden Sparks of Cherokee County told the delegates, to a roar of applause. "It is our goal to restore the principles that made this country great."

At one point, a veteran told the convention that he fought for his country first, not Texas.

The Texas Democratic Party blasted the vote on secession.

"Instead of focusing on fixing our schools, raising incomes for hard-working Texas families, or expanding opportunities for Texans, the party that controls the majority of our state government is focused on one of the most un-American, unpatriotic things I've ever seen," the party's executive director, Crystal Kay Perkins, said in a statement. "The Republican Party is dead. All that is left is a bunch of crackpots and traitors."

Delegates at times were intent on introducing proposals that would tie elected officials' hands and force them to comply with the platform as agreed to by the convention. Republican office holders in the state are under no obligation to abide by any parts of the platform, though, which is a non-binding statement of party stances on various issues.

At just under 30 pages, this year's platform was decidedly shorter than those from previous years, which helped to ease the party into its first platform voting process that allowed every delegate to vote for or against each of the nearly 260 planks on a Scantron ballot.

In 1869, in a case over whether Texas bonds issued during its years in the Confederacy were legal, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not permit states to unilaterally secede from the United States.