Daniel Miller came to this Late Night Coffee Talk still recovering from the worst fever he has run since childhood, the kind that had him hallucinating in a Gainesville hotel room after a Cooke County candidate forum. He pushed through anyway, because the week handed him the clearest proof yet that the Texas independence question has stopped being a fringe one. The center of the night was a gubernatorial forum in College Station where, roughly twenty minutes in, every one of Greg Abbott’s four Republican challengers was asked a yes or no question lifted word for word from the TNM’s proposed ballot language. Would they support a referendum reading, the state of Texas shall reassert its status as an independent nation. Huffines, Harrison, Prather, and West each said yes.
Miller’s argument was that this is not the behavior of candidates fleeing a third rail. These are mainstream contenders, one of whom could plausibly unseat a sitting governor, and they embraced the vote without shame or hedging. He pointed to the same pattern in the field. A Cooke County Conservatives straw poll, taken by ballot rather than a show of hands, put him at 47 percent for lieutenant governor against zero for Dan Patrick, while the Texas question itself drew 78 percent support. Real votes with real deliberation, he insisted, beat the anti-TEXIT crowd’s claim that no one supports independence. He drew the contrast bluntly. Even if a challenger knocks Abbott out, the people get no vote unless the lieutenant governor allows it, and he is the only candidate in that race publicly defending that right under Article 1, Section 2 of the Texas Constitution.
The closing pitch ran from the statehouse to the schoolhouse, pointing supporters to the Take Texas Back slate of candidates who signed on to House Bill 1359 and contrasting them with figures like Matt Schaefer who would not. Miller’s through line was that the movement’s only real advantage against a 25 million dollar war chest is the passion of its people, working public tables, asking the question at every event, and turning out the vote.
Questions answered in this episode
- What is your proudest moment across the history of the Texas Nationalist Movement?
- Besides TEXIT, what issues are you asked to address most often on the campaign trail? Miller named the border, property taxes, the electric grid, water, and executive overreach.
- Will there ever be a time when Texians should take to the streets, and what is the difference between a protest and a demonstration?
- Is it true that many Texas counties are passing censure resolutions against Greg Abbott?
- When will your first book, Line in the Sand, be back in print?
- Have independence movements in other states or countries reached out to coordinate with the TNM?
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