Michael Karlis
Texas Nationalist Movement President Daniel Miller delivers a petition to Gov. Greg Abbott's office calling for the state to secede from the union.
Tuesday's visit to Abbott's office comes roughly two months after TNM hand-delivered a petition with nearly 140,000 verified signatures to the Texas GOP's headquarters requesting a non-binding "TEXIT" question be placed on the state's Republican primary ballots in March.
However, the Texas GOP denied that petition, arguing that the signatures were submitted late and that only handwritten signatures could be accepted. The TNM's signatures were electronic.
"We are here because the Republican Party of Texas ignored the voices of people that signed the petition," TNM President Daniel Miller told roughly 70 supporters gathered at the Texas State Capitol before delivering the signatures to Abbott's office.
"Today, we bring those same names, those same petition signatures, plus all the Democrats who signed the petition who wanted a vote as well, to show beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is an issue that transcends partisan divide and is, in fact, an issue of the people of Texas versus an entrenched political establishment."
Despite Miller's enthusiasm, most political observers don't share his belief that TEXIT enjoys widespread support.
In December, Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson told the Current he was unsurprised by the Texas GOP's decision to exclude the question from the ballot.
"The Republican Party of Texas doesn't want to offer the opportunity for its primary electorate to express silliness," Jillson explained.
Indeed, a recent study conducted by UK-based Redfield and Wiltson Strategies and Newsweek found that 67% of likely Texan voters, if given the choice, would vote to remain part of the United States.
Just the same, Miller told the Current the Redfield-Newsweek poll is inaccurate and doesn't reflect the amount of support the TNM has gathered in recent years.
"At the end of the day, you're going to see polls like that," he said. "If you look at where support is for this issue right now, in this lifecycle of an independence movement, we're outperforming Brexit, we're outperforming Scottish independence and we're outperforming Catalan — and we're outperforming everyone at every stage of the process."
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