Texas Nationalist Movement seeks to halt printing of state GOP’s primary ballots

The Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) filed a temporary restraining order Thursday seeking to bar the Republican Party of Texas from printing ballots for the party’s March primary, according to a complaint filed in a Travis County district court.

The TNM’s dramatic move comes mere hours after the Texas Supreme Court rejected an emergency request by the fringe group asking for the justices to intervene in the Texas GOP’s decision not to include a nonbonding question about Texas secession on the ballot.

On Dec. 11, the TNM submitted nearly 140,000 valid signatures to party headquarters — about 40,000 more than required by law — to put the question on the ballot. However, in an open letter to the TNM, the Texas Republican Party refused to add the referendum.

Officially, the Texas GOP argued that the signatures were submitted late and that only hand-printed signatures could be accepted. The TNM’s signatures were electronic.

“The Republican Party of Texas doesn’t want to offer the opportunity for its primary electorate to express silliness,” Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson told the Current last week. “It would simply draw them into defending something that is not currently defensible and is not a real thing. It’s simply not the case under current law and the constitutional interpretation of the country [that Texas could secede].”

On Thursday, the TNM pleaded with the Texas Supreme Court to intervene and force the Texas GOP to put the question of Texas secession to Republican primary voters. However, the Supreme Court denied the motion without explanation.

That led to the TNM then filing an emergency temporary restraining order preventing the Texas GOP, and Chairman Matt Rinaldi from printing the primary ballots altogether.

“Ballots should not be printed until the unlawful actions of the Texas GOP and Matt Rinaldi have been properly vetted by the courts,” TNM President Daniel Miller said in a statement. “We believe that the courts will find that Rinaldi’s actions were unlawful, and we expect the TEXIT question to be on the ballot this March.”

Even if Miller and his band of traitors are successful in getting the so-called TEXIT inquiry on the ballot, the Republic of Texas is unlikely to rise again anytime soon, according to Jillson, who points out that the U.S. Supreme Court’s  White v. Texas makes it clear that states, including Texas, can’t legally secede.

“Now, that doesn’t mean that people with a lot of time on their hands and little else productive to do still talk about it,” Jillson said. “But it doesn’t mean that it’s a real thing the rest of us who have actual lives need to pause and think about.”

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This article appears in Jan 10-23, 2024.