Today, President of the Texas Nationalist Movement, Daniel Miller, announced that the Texas Independence Referendum Act has been submitted for filing in the 87th Session of the Texas Legislature.

State Representative Kyle Biedermann made the announcement this morning via social media, declaring his intention to champion the legislation that will give the people of Texas a binding vote on Texas reasserting its status as an independent nation.

The announcement was broadcast live across various social media platforms. The legislation has been submitted to the Texas Legislative Council and will be filed once it is issued a bill number.

Below is the full text of the TNM President Daniel Miller’s announcement:

In 2005, the Texas Nationalist Movement was founded with a clear mission – secure and protect the political, cultural, and economic independence of Texas. Since then, the TNM has grown to become one of the world’s largest independence organizations and one of the largest advocacy organizations in Texas.

A key objective of the TNM has been to organize Texans in support of a vote on Texas becoming an independent nation. While our organization engages in other work related to our mission, it is our work toward an independence referendum that has captured the imagination of Texans and drawn the ire of the political establishment and their enablers.

Article 1 Section 1 of the Texas Constitution says that the “perpetuity of the union depends on the right of local self-government unimpaired to all the states.” At the moment that the federal government imposed the first policy on the people of Texas that we did not want or the first time that the will of the people of Texas was overturned by an unaccountable federal court, Texas had the absolute right to reassert its status as an independent self-governing nation.

Yet, we did not. Texans have patiently borne the encroachment of our rights, believing that there was some small glimmer of hope that the union could be fixed.

The relationship between Texas and the federal union has become untenable, unsustainable, and unfixable.

Texans are tired of living under 180,000 pages of federal laws, rules, and regulations administered by 440 separate agencies and 2.5 million unelected bureaucrats.

If all federal laws, rules, and regulations were printed out and stacked, it would be taller than the San Jacinto Monument. This is an affront to those who fought and died in whose honor that monument is erected.

Texas should be governed by Texans and Texans alone. We should not have our political destiny determined by California, New York, or any other state.

Texans overpay anywhere from $103-$160 billion per year into the federal government that never makes it back to Texas. This has a negative economic impact equivalent to a Hurricane Harvey event hitting Texas every nine months.

Texas is disproportionately impacted by excessive federal regulations. In short, the better we do, the harder we’re hit. 

The growth of federal regulations over the past six decades has cut U.S. economic growth by an average of 2 percentage points per year. The result is that the average household receives about $277,000 less annually than it would have gotten in the absence of sixty years of additional federal regulations. A George Mason University study concluded that, without federal overregulation, the annual median household income would have been $330,000 in 2013 as opposed to the average of $53,000.

The relentless expansion of the federal superstate is crushing the poorest and most vulnerable Texans, driving them into poverty by increasing prices for items that low-income households purchase most and by increasing the costs of starting a business, which has always been the bridge from poverty to prosperity.

The federal government’s one-size-fits-none approach and systemic political dysfunction have created a disaster on our border with Mexico and has irreparably broken the immigration system creating an unparalleled public safety and public health crisis.

We have and continue to see attacks on critical sectors of the Texas economy with more attacks and disruption promised every election cycle. These threats to the ability of Texans to put food on their tables is unacceptable.

We have seen lawlessness unleashed on our streets incited and encouraged for the purpose of political gain in the halls of Washington, DC.

We have seen the doctrine of Karl Marx and Josef Stalin, long cast-off from failed states, take root in the hearts and policy promises of millions of those who would claim to be our countrymen.

The people of Texas have indicated in ever-increasing numbers that they no longer want to be governed by unelected federal bureaucrats or inept politicians whose concern for the real challenges faced by Texans is limited to raiding our paychecks for tax money or campaign cash.

For years, the people of Texas have been speaking on this issue. The political establishment hasn’t been listening and, in some cases, directly acted to prevent the people from having a definitive voice on independence.

The issue of Texas independence has been regularly polled since 2009. Over the last 11 years, we have seen support for an independent Texas increase.

A Research 2000 poll conducted in 2009 showed a near majority of Republicans, and independent voters believed that Texas would be better off as an independent nation. 

A Reuters/IPSOS poll in 2014 showed a majority of Texas Republicans and over one-third of Democrats thought Texas should become an independent nation.

A Zogby poll in 2018 showed that 39% of people across all 50 states believed that states had an absolute right to leave the union. 

In 2020, the Republican Party of Texas added Plank 65 to its platform with 93% support which reads: “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 should a future president and congress change our political system from a constitutional republic to any other system.”

At a minimum, the question of whether to stay in the union or become an independent, self-governing nation should be put to the people of Texas.

Article 1 Section 1 of the Texas Constitution is crystal clear on our path forward. Texans must be given the opportunity to vote on Texas being an independent nation. 

It is for this reason, and many others, that the Texas Nationalist Movement has championed a referendum on Texas independence since our inception in 2005. We have been the voice of the people of Texas who believe that Texas would be better off as an independent nation and, therefore, should reassert its status as such.

Given these significant and increasing levels of support, it is time for the people of Texas to have a yes or no vote on being an independent, self-governing nation again. 

Today, Texans are one step closer to having their voices heard on the issue of Texas independence. This morning, State Representative Kyle Biedermann has submitted the Texas Independence Referendum Act to be filed in the next session of the Texas Legislature.

Upon its passage in the next legislative session, the Texas Independence Referendum Act will give Texans a vote on becoming an independent self-governing nation. Should this legislation pass, the people of Texas will go to the polls in November of 2021 and be asked one simple question: “Should the State of Texas reassert its status as an independent nation?”

The bill codifies the principles of self-determination and self-government articulated in Article 1 Section 2 of the Texas Constitution and puts the political destiny of Texas into the hands of its rightful owners – the people of Texas. The people of Texas are being asked whether they want to join 195 other self-governing, independent nations of the world.

Representative Biedermann has been a champion of the people and a champion for Texas in the Legislature. As the first legislator to publicly stand up for the people of Texas who had legitimate concerns about the Reimagine The Alamo project, Representative Biedermann has proven that he is a champion for the rights of the people of Texas. It is fitting and expected that he has heard the voice of the people who want independence and taken this heroic step to file legislation that will give all Texans a voice in our political destiny.

As Kyle takes the lead on this issue in the Texas Legislature, the TNM will do everything in its power to rally pro-independence Texans from Dalhart to Del Rio, from El Paso to Orange, and all points in between in support of the fight that lies ahead of him.

There will be time after this legislation is passed to debate the merits of Texas independence. That time is not now.

With the filing of this legislation, there are only two sides of the issue. There are those who will support Article 1 Section 2 of the Texas Constitution and give the people a mechanism to express their will on our independence. On the other side are those who believe that the people of Texas aren’t capable of making their own decisions.

It is with great courage that Representative Biedermann has shown that he believes in Texas and believes that the people should be able to exercise their right of self-government. For this reason, he deserves more than your praise. He deserves every ounce of support that you can give him in this fight.

You must contact your State Representative and State Senator and demand that they support the Texas Independence Referendum Act. Because this legislation has been filed, you should ask every elected official that represents you one question: “Do you support my right to vote for Texas independence?”

The Texas Nationalist Movement will continue to organize and fight for your voice to be heard. There is an enormous amount of work that needs to be done to get and win a vote on Texas independence. I’m asking you to pledge your support for our efforts on our website at TNM.ME/TEXIT. There you will find out more information about actions you can take to personally help make TEXIT a reality. 

Now we must all choose which side of this issue we will occupy. Does the Texas Bill of Rights matter? Are the principles that the men at the Alamo died to protect still relevant in the 21st century? Are those who publicly champion the right to vote honest about their intentions or is it just empty political rhetoric and partisan positioning?

As for me and the Texas Nationalist Movement, we will use this opportunity to make good on the words of Sam Houston when he said that, “Texas will again lift its head and stand among the nations.”