AUSTIN — Texas Nationalist Movement president Daniel Miller called on Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday to include in a special session a proposal to let Texans vote on whether the state should leave the United States and become an independent republic.
The news conference by supporters included Republican Reps. Kyle Biedermann of Fredericksburg, who filed the bill for what is known as TEXIT, Jeff Cason of Bedford, and Bryan Slaton of Royse City. Cason and Slaton are co-authors.
The bill failed to receive a hearing in the House Committee on State Affairs and appears dead unless it is tacked on to another proposal. In response, the Texas Nationalist Movement, a group that has pushed for over a decade for a vote on Texas becoming an independent nation, and its supporters held the presser to kick off 15-plus hours of virtual testimony, according to Miller.
“Chairman [Rep. Chris] Paddie, R-Marshall, has ignored the pleas of Texans who have done all but begged for this bill to be heard,” Miller said. “He has not scheduled it for a hearing, effectively killing it this session. The only reason to not give this legislation a public hearing is to perpetuate the lie that TEXIT supporters are old, white and uneducated.”
Added Miller: “In short, the political establishment doesn’t want the world to see the true face of TEXIT.”