Daniel Miller's Rules for the Candidates Asking for His Vote

With his inbox full of candidates asking for public support, TNM President Daniel Miller laid out the ground rules he would use for the election cycle in an open letter to them all. He began by stating plainly who he is: an unapologetic Texas nationalist who believes Texas is a nation, that it would be better off governing itself as an independent nation, and that it should reassert that status.

His first rule was for candidates for federal office, including president, senator, and congressman: keep walking. The federal government, he wrote, is beyond repair, and any claim to the contrary is either dishonest or disconnected from reality.

For candidates for any office in Texas, the standard was knowledge of and fidelity to Article 1, Sections 1 and 2 of the Texas Constitution, the provisions on the federal system and the rights of the people. He expected them to know it by heart and to prove they would abide by it.

For candidates for the Texas Legislature, the bar was higher still: a public pledge to file the Texas Independence Referendum Act, to run as a candidate supported by the movement, and to stand publicly for its mission and principles. The message to all of them was the same. Do not tell me how Texan you are. Show me.