All Political Power Is Inherent in the People: The GOP, the Runoffs, and What TEXIT Really Targets

Daniel Miller opened a long-overdue Late Night Coffee Talk with a backlog of viewer mail and one recurring complaint from the press: skepticism that there is any real secessionist movement in northern Mexico. He pointed reporters to TNM’s own archives, including the Global Exit and the Americas webinar that featured voices from CalExit, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico and Mexico, and explained why his recorded message to Mexico’s president was no policy shift at all. If Mexico City’s official posture is to undermine the Texas border, then backing the self-determination of fed-up northern Mexican states is simply TNM living out its own principles.

From there the night kept circling one subject: the Republican Party of Texas. With the state convention and leadership elections approaching, viewers wanted to know whether the GOP will ever back TEXIT, which chair and SREC candidates align with the movement, and whether the party machine is even the right vehicle. Miller’s answer stayed consistent. TNM does not recruit parties, it recruits people, grounded in Article I, Section 2 of the Texas Constitution: all political power is inherent in the people. Win the people and the organizations they belong to follow. He flagged a virtual town hall in the works for State Chair candidates, urged supporters to check who has signed the Texas First Pledge at TakeTexasBack, and noted that the parties have become problematic precisely because they are private clubs grafted into a Draconian Texas election code.

He also got blunt about the primary runoffs, naming David Covey, Andy Hopper and David Lowe as pledge-aligned challengers who beat incumbents into runoffs and now need help, with the establishment pouring in money and Greg Abbott cutting an ad against Hopper. On the petition fight, Miller confirmed the delivered signatures carry a 180-day window, that litigation is being worked through with attorneys, and that whether it moves forward depends on funding the legal defense rather than draining the ground game.

Questions answered in this episode

• Why would the GOP ever support TEXIT when the party looks like a conservative trap no different from the Democrats?
• Are there plans to pressure Governor Abbott to convert the National Guard and state guard to head off federalization?
• With RPT leadership positions on the ballot at the convention, which State Chair and SREC candidates are best aligned with TNM?
• How would an independent Texas shift attention back to local and state government and shut off the out-of-state and foreign money flowing into our elections?
• Incumbents forced into runoffs usually lose, so which Texas First Pledge signers are at risk and could use a boost right now?
• Has Vice Chair Dr. Dana Myers said whether she condemns Matt Rinaldi’s petition-killing in December or his statements in January?
• How is TEXIT doing among county commissioners, sheriffs and precinct chairs, and is that presence growing?
• Does Texas get a military before or after independence?
• What happens to the petitions delivered to the governor, and do the signatures expire?
• Is the Republican Party the right party to move things forward, or should TNM stand up a new state party?
• Why does the TEXIT referendum bill not use mandatory language compelling the governor to act?