Texas GOP Convention Pushes for Referendum on State’s Secession in 2023
Following President Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 elections, the Republicans have increasingly floated the idea of secession. In 2021 Texas Republican Rep. Kyle Biedermann filed a bill calling for state-level secession from the US as “the federal government is out of control and does not represent the values of Texans.”
As Texas Republicans ended a three-day convention in Houston on June 18th, they revived the call for a referendum on whether the state should secede from the US, according to the Texas Tribune.
This was one of a plethora of measures called for in the Texas GOP’s new party platform, which states under a section titled “State Sovereignty”:
“Pursuant to Article 1, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our right of local self-government. Therefore, federally mandated legislation that infringes upon the 10th Amendment rights of Texas should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified.”
The document continues:
“Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto.”
Texas GOP Platform also calls for full repeal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as well as for the state to hold a referendum on whether Texas should secede pic.twitter.com/oeiGjB0nys
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) June 19, 2022
The platform also reflected the Texas GOP’s demand that state Legislature pass a bill at its next session “requiring a referendum in the 2023 general election for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”
Republican discourse on secession is not new, with the idea floated by GOP officials from Wyoming, Florida, and Mississippi, among others. Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry discussed secession at an April 2009 rally after Barack Obama claimed the presidency. Back in 2
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