Texas GOP rejects proposal for vote on secession



So how would Texas look as an independent nation? Click through our slideshow to find out... less A state GOP committee approved a resolution on Texas secession to go before a full party vote on Saturday. Officials will then decide whether to put the non-binding resolution on the March 1 primary ballot. It would serve only as an opinion survey and would not compel the state to secede. A state GOP committee approved a resolution on Texas secession to go before a full party vote on Saturday. Officials will then decide whether to put the non-binding resolution on the March 1 primary ballot. It ... more Photo: Associated Press Photo: Associated Press Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Texas GOP rejects proposal for vote on secession 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN--UPDATE—As expected, a proposal to hold a statewide non-binding vote on Texas secession failed overwhelmingly at an assembly of the Republican Party of Texas in Austin Saturday. Approximately 10 of the party's 62 voting officials supported the resolution.

In heated debate before the vote, opponents rejected the idea of secession as far-fetched.

"I'm not sending my grandson out with a 12-gauge shotgun to take on the 82nd Airborne," said State Republican Executive Committee member Fred Henneke, speaking to the assembly.

Supporters denied that the non-binding vote would spark violence, and invoked the spirit of 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence and the 1836 Texas Declaration of Independence.

"We're only asking for an opinion," said SREC member Tanya Robertson, who first introduced resolution to poll Republican voters on the March primary ballot. "It can't hurt anything."

ORIGINAL POST--A proposal to put Texas secession to a non-binding vote in March passed a state GOP committee vote in Austin on Friday afternoon, clearing the way for a vote Saturday by the Party's full executive assembly, party officials reported.

Party leadership has said the independence item won't likely be approved in a full-body vote. An informal poll of executive committee members conducted by the Chronicle suggested the assembly was split on the issue.

The resolution would put a breakup with Uncle Sam to a non-binding vote, which would essentially serve as an opinion poll and wouldn't legally compel Texas to secede.

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It was introduced by State Republican Executive Committee member Tanya Robertson, who represents parts of Harris, Galveston and Brazoria counties. In November, she told the Chronicle that many of her constituents had voiced support for a reborn Republic of Texas, the short-lived nation of the mid-1800s.

The resolution reads, "If the federal government continues to disregard the constitution and the sovereignty of the State of Texas, the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation."

The SREC is the governing body of the Republican Party of Texas, and it decides what will appear on the March 1 Republican primary ballot. The Party is currently assembled in Austin to author the ballot. On Friday, the independence resolution passed the Resolutions Committee, which selects items to go before the full 40-member assembly on Saturday. Of 12 resolutions presented at the committee Friday, five were approved, including independence, members said.

Of the 40 SREC members polled by the Chronicle this week, 13 responded. Six said they would support a vote on independence, six said they would not and one declined to comment.

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Supporters of the resolution argued that the Party should not prohibit the citizens from voicing their opinion, while opponents argued that secession was unpatriotic and unconstitutional.

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

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.

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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 America 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.