Texas Governor Greg Abbott, while at a campaign event in Harris County, made his most pro-Texas independence comments yet.

Governor Abbott often invokes the vision of Texas as an independent nation while making stump-speeches, saying, “If Texas were an independent country, we’d be the tenth largest economy in the world!” The reason is simple – it’s always a crowd pleaser, guaranteed to be his biggest applause line. However, at a Harris County campaign stop, the governor took it up a few notches and gave an almost spiritual message. He proclaimed to his audience that the same desire for freedom and independence that held to the last man at the Alamo and won the day at San Jacinto still resides in the souls of every Texan:

“The legacy of Texas exceptionalism began long before anyone of us was here. There were some people that thought Texas should be free! Texas should be independent! And they put their lives on the line so that Texas could be and would be independent! And even though some of them never lived to see that independence, they were willing to fight for it because they knew the value of it. Today, in your hearts, in your souls, is the same craving, the same yearning for freedom that they had. And, you must battle similarly with one difference: you don’t have to battle with bullets, you have to battle with ballots!”

Sounding like a card-carrying member of the Texas Nationalist Movement, Governor Abbott’s passionate and persuasive argument for Texas independence achieved through the ballot box is nothing short of an endorsement of the TNM’s mission to get and win an independence referendum.

More and more each day, polling indicates that Texans are waking up to the fact that if Texans want a bright future, we must reclaim our right of self-government and become an independent nation. Abbott is absolutely correct. Texans want freedom and they want independence. They just need an opportunity to make themselves heard clearly. They need a vote on independence.

It’s a great thing to hear the Texas Governor using freedom and independence to rally his supporters, but that same spirit must be put into action. Now is the time for the governor and other elected officials to move past campaign rhetoric and take action. Texans want a referendum on Texas independence and they are the ones who can make it happen.