Move 02 of 4
Get it on the Ballot
A decision this big runs through a vote, and there is one road to that vote: a law passed by the Texas Legislature. Here is the vehicle, and how pressure moves it.
One road, and it runs through the Capitol
All political power is inherent in the people. The Texas Constitution says so in Article 1, Section 2: the people have the right to alter, reform, or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient. A decision this big cannot be made by some Texans. It has to be all of them. That is why it runs through a vote, and why getting the vote is its own fight.
Texas is not an initiative-and-referendum state. No petition automatically puts independence on the ballot. A referendum exists only if the Legislature passes a law creating it. There is no shortcut around that building.
The vehicle: the Texas Independence Referendum Act
The Texas Independence Referendum Act, TIRA, was first filed as House Bill 1359 by Representative Kyle Biedermann in 2021, with Representative James White as coauthor, and it has been refiled since. The question the movement intends to put to Texans is the one TNM has carried from the start: should the State of Texas reassert its status as an independent nation? That is the wording Representative Biedermann planned to restore through a committee substitute to HB 1359.
If voters say yes, the bill directs the Legislature to act on that mandate. It stands up a Texas Independence Committee, a joint interim committee, charged with studying and recommending the most effective and expeditious method for Texas to return to its status as an independent republic, and with delivering that strategy within sixty months of the result being certified. The bill is written carefully to survive the procedural and constitutional challenges the opposition will throw at it, the kind of point of order or lawsuit that could otherwise stall the effort for years. But make no mistake about where the power sits. Under Article 1, Section 2 of the Texas Constitution, all political power is inherent in the people, and a vote of the people of Texas is the decisive act.
How you get it: pressure
Politicians react reliably to one thing, the fear of losing their seat. Independence referendums draw turnout no normal race touches. Point a bloc of single-issue voters of unshakeable belief at a Legislature, and the math gets loud. It is already moving: Texas First Pledge signers are heading into the Legislature, the Republican Party of Texas platform carries independence planks across multiple conventions, and the Libertarian Party of Texas stood up a TEXIT caucus.
Fig. 1 · Pressure that moves a Legislature
Texans backed a Texas independence referendum in the last Republican primary, and the dominant party has written it into its platform twice. That is the kind of pressure a Legislature feels.
Your job at this stage is not to win arguments online. It is one sentence: pass the bill. Plug into the organized effort and bring the weight.