After HB 1359 Dies in Committee, the TNM Takes TEXIT to the Ballot and the Primaries

With the legislature asleep on the question of Texas independence, the Texas Nationalist Movement is doing what lawmakers would not. The Texas House let House Bill 1359, which would have put a TEXIT referendum to the people, die in committee. The movement always had a backup plan.

First, the movement is gathering signatures to place a TEXIT referendum on the 2022 Republican primary ballot under Section 172.088 of the Texas Election Code. Unlike the bill, which would have studied how to pursue independence, the ballot question puts the decision itself to the voters, and it needs only a simple majority to pass.

Second, the movement is recruiting pro-TEXIT challengers for the 2022 primary against every state legislator who refused to sign on to House Bill 1359. More than forty potential candidates had already stepped forward.

The movement credited the handful of legislators who stood with the bill, among them its author, Representative Kyle Biedermann, and pledged that those who blocked it would now answer to their voters. The petition, the movement said, is only one cannon in the artillery shed.