The French Were the Ones Outnumbered: TNM Storms the Texas GOP Convention

Daniel Miller and co-host Nate Smith use this Coffee Talk to walk through a week that did not go the way the Texas Republican establishment wanted. After a tussle over the denied TEXIT petition, the TNM decided not to hand the party money for a booth on principle, then put the question to its own supporters. The answer was emphatic. 402 donations from 333 donors and roughly 60 volunteers put the movement on the floor of what is typically the largest political convention in the world, where red TNM shirts and blinking three-light Texas pins turned heads from everyday delegates up to elected officials.

The headline fight was over the two planks the TNM has spent years building. The state sovereignty plank rooted in nullification and the right of local self-government, and Plank 225 calling for a referendum on Texas independence. Both survived. The harder push was to also make a referendum an official legislative priority, a goal backed by resolutions out of 33 county and Senate District conventions, more than any other single issue. That effort died on the floor, but only after a string of scheduling maneuvers. The minority report was jammed to the front of Friday business while delegates were still stuck in delayed caucuses and missed lunch, leaving a tiny fraction of the body present amid four unmanned microphones and no functioning light system. Roughly 27 delegates on the floor voted it down in the confusion. When the secession language came up again on the full floor, Scott Bowen moved to strike it from the platform entirely and was beaten back by a decisive voice vote, with Mack Dunkin reminding the room the plank reflects 89% delegate approval from 2022 and the Texas Constitution itself.

Miller and Smith also celebrate the bigger scoreboard. Texas First Pledge signers swept party leadership, including new RPT chair Abraham George and six of seven vice chairs, and four pledge signers advanced through the primary runoffs. The loss that stung, David Covey falling to Speaker Dade Phelan by fewer than 400 votes, becomes the night’s argument for why every bit of effort matters.

Questions answered in this episode

• If the State Republican Executive Committee had simply voted for the referendum, would the 139,000-signature TEXIT petition still have mattered?
• How can supporters help the push for a closed Republican primary that Attorney General Paxton and the party have backed?
• Does the convention’s vote actually direct the Texas House and Senate to take up Texas independence, or can it be quietly ignored in committee?
• Why is calling for a referendum on independence not treason, the charge thrown at Nate Smith during his committee testimony?
• When does the next legislative session really begin, and what is the TNM doing in the meantime to hold representatives to the platform?