Texas Independence Planks Reaffirmed and Pledge Signers Elected to Lead the Republican Party of Texas

At the 2026 Republican Party of Texas State Convention, the Texas Nationalist Movement saw the independence planks it authored retained in the party platform and Texas First Pledge signers elected to the party's two highest offices, the strongest position the cause of Texas independence has held inside the state's governing party.

Delegates retained both planks the movement authored. The platform's Texas Independence plank reads: “The Texas Legislature should pass a bill in its next session requiring a referendum in the next General Election for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation. This referendum should be a legislative priority.”

The platform's State Sovereignty plank affirms that “Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto and pass the Texas Sovereignty Act.”

Delegates also elected D'Rinda Randall as state chair and David Covey as vice chair, both signers of the Texas First Pledge, the commitment the movement created to identify candidates who support a vote on Texas independence. At least seventeen of the incoming members of the State Republican Executive Committee, the body that governs the party between conventions, are pledge signers or registered supporters of the movement.

The movement's presence on the convention floor matched its presence in the platform. Of the delegates the movement identified ahead of the convention, nearly one in ten were already registered supporters. The movement's booth, number 724, was among the most active in the exhibit hall, where more than a thousand delegates stopped to sign a pledge of support for the organization's planks.

The result marks a turning point ten years in the making. At the 2016 state convention, the movement arrived with independence resolutions from twenty-two county conventions, and the effort to bring Texas independence to the convention floor fell two votes short. In the decade since, delegates have adopted and repeatedly reaffirmed the independence planks, which have drawn more delegate support than priorities including border security, election integrity, and support for the armed forces.

“Ten years ago, a vote on Texas independence could not survive a committee at this convention,” said Daniel Miller, President of the Texas Nationalist Movement. “Today it is the official, repeatedly reaffirmed position of the largest state party in the United States, and the people who lead that party have pledged themselves to it. That did not happen because the establishment had a change of heart. It happened because Texians refused to quit. This victory belongs to the volunteers who staffed our booth, the delegates who stood with us on the convention floor, and the hundreds of thousands of Texians who declared themselves for this cause and never wavered.”

The platform's independence planks position the cause for the 90th Texas Legislature, which convenes in January 2027, when the Texas Independence Referendum Act is expected to be filed again. The movement said the planks serve as the political mandate for legislators who file and defend independence and sovereignty legislation.

“A platform is not a referendum, and the only thing that settles the future of Texas is a vote of every Texan,” Miller added. “That vote is the work in front of us. The planks adopted in Houston are the mandate that arms every legislator who files the Texas Independence Referendum Act and stands behind it. The party has spoken. The next word belongs to the people of Texas, and the only question left is whether you'll be part of it.”