Texas Republicans are pushing for a referendum to decide whether the state should secede from the U.S.

The demand for Texans to be allowed to vote on the issue in 2023 was one of many measures adopted in the Texas GOP’s party platform following last week’s state convention in Houston.

Under a section titled “State Sovereignty,” the platform states: “Pursuant to Article 1, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our right of local self-government. Therefore, federally mandated legislation that infringes upon the 10th Amendment rights of Texas should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified.

“Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto.”

In another section on state governance, the platform states that Texas Republicans want the state Legislature to pass a bill in its next session “requiring a referendum in the 2023 general election for the people of Texas to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”

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It’s not clear how popular the effort is among Texans, but the Texas Nationalist Movement’s website claims almost half a million Texans support its work to “make Texas an independent nation again.”

The movement’s efforts have been promoted by Texas Republicans. Last year, state Representative Kyle Biedermann introduced a bill that called for a “Texit” referendum, which was endorsed by Texas GOP chairman Allen West. The bill ultimately failed.

The bill was rebuked by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, with Republican state Representative Jeff Leach branding it a “disgrace to the Lone Star State” and the “very definition of seditious.”

As well as the issue of a referendum, delegates also voted on more than 270 platform planks as the convention closed on Saturday. {snip}

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The Texas GOP’s new party platform also called for full repeal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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