Texas Nationalists Ask Gina Hinojosa the Question She Asked Abbott: 'What Are You Afraid Of?'

The Texas Nationalist Movement on Thursday published an open letter asking Governor-Elect Gina Hinojosa and Lieutenant Governor-Elect Vikki Goodwin to do one of two things: sign the Texas First Pledge, or say publicly whether Texans should get a vote on independence. TNM President Daniel Miller sent private copies to both transition teams at 8 a.m. and posted the letter on thetnm.org at 11 a.m., two days after both Democrats won statewide in the unofficial count.

The letter is built almost entirely from the two winners' own words. In February 2025, during the fight over school vouchers, Hinojosa answered Governor Greg Abbott's press office on X: "If you are so sure... Let Texans vote on vouchers. What are you afraid of?" On Aug. 12 of this year, after the state's new THC rules took effect, she wrote, "When I'm governor, I'll let the people vote." Her campaign's petition, still posted on its website, promises that "Gina will fight to give the people of Texas a direct right to vote on the future of THC."

Goodwin made the same case in September 2025. "Shouldn't we let the people have a say?" she wrote. "Whether it's casinos, THC/marijuana legalization, school vouchers, etc., we should let people vote on these issues."

Both also put the principle on the record with a vote. On April 16, 2025, Representative James Talarico offered an amendment to send the voucher bill to a statewide referendum. The House tabled it 86 to 62 on Record Vote 244, and the House Journal lists Hinojosa and Goodwin among the 62 who voted against tabling it.

"If Texans can be trusted to decide on vouchers, casinos and THC, it is hard to see why they can't be trusted to decide whether Texas governs itself," Miller wrote. He quoted Hinojosa's election-night line, "Your government belongs to you," and set it beside Article 1, Section 2 of the Texas Constitution, which says the people of Texas "have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government."

The letter does not pretend the two sides agree. Hinojosa called TEXIT supporters "extremists" in a January 2024 post, and Miller addressed it directly. "We disagree, but this letter doesn't ask either of you to agree with us about independence," he wrote. "It asks whether Texans get to decide."

It also makes a narrower request. The 90th Legislature convenes Jan. 12, 2027, and TNM's referendum bill, which as drafted sets the vote for November 2027, will be filed for it. The letter asks both officials to say publicly that the bill deserves a public hearing and a vote in committee, and it asks Goodwin, who will preside over the Senate, to refer it to a committee that will hear it. Prefiling opens Monday. Similar bills were filed in 2021 and 2023, as HB 1359 and HB 3596. Each went to the House State Affairs Committee, and neither received a hearing.

TNM reports more than 700,000 registered supporters. In the unofficial count, 16 of the 18 statewide races on Tuesday's ballot were decided by fewer votes than that, including Goodwin's own, which she won by 598,929.

Miller pressed the point in comments to Newsweek on Thursday. "The new governor demanded a vote of the people on vouchers and asked Abbott's office, 'What are you afraid of?'" he said. "On a vote for independence, I'm asking her the same question."

By Thursday afternoon neither campaign had answered. An automatic reply from Hinojosa's campaign inbox said the team responds in five to seven days. TNM said it will publish any answer in full, whatever it is.

Hinojosa and Goodwin campaigned on the idea that the biggest questions in Texas belong to the voters. The letter asks them to say whether independence is the exception.