Republican Texas State Representative Bryan Slaton offered a invoice Monday to permit Texans to vote on whether or not the Lone Star State must secede from the United States.
If the Texas Legislature passes the Texas Independence Referendum Act,” or TEXIT, a referendum will be placed on the ballot during the 2024 general election.
“The Texas Constitution is apparent that each one political energy is living within the folks. After a long time of constant abuse of our rights and liberties by means of the government, it’s time to let the folk of Texas make their voices heard,” Slaton stated in a remark.
H.B. 3596 would permit Texas to “examine the potential for Texas independence,” and “provide possible plans” to the Legislature.
The bill is supported by the Texas National Movement (TEXIT), a grassroots movement with more than 440,000 members pushing for Texas Independence.
“The folks of Texas will glance again on at the moment as a historical first step in taking again our autonomy and our proper to self-determination from the government,” Texas National Movement President Daniel Miller said to Fox News in a statement.
However, the measure received backlash from fellow Republican State Representative Jeff Leach, who tweeted that the plan was “ridiculous” and the “very definition of hypocritical & seditious treason & it’s already lifeless.”
A painting depicting the final hours of the Battle of the Alamo with former congressman and frontiersman Davey Crocket in the foreground on March 6, 1836 in San Antonio, Republic of Texas. (Illustration by Ed Vebell/Getty Images)
Slaton filed the bill on the 187th anniversary of the Alamo, the famous battle that symbolized the struggle for Texas Independence. He said that “Texas was once born out of a want for liberty and self-governance, and that want continues to burn within the hearts of all Texans.”
Texas has tried to secede from the U.S. several times, including during the famous 1868 Supreme Court case Texas v. White, which established that states do not have the right to unilaterally secede from the union.
