The Price of Freedom: Soros Money, a Hollow Democratic Convention, and the Catalyst Campaign

Daniel Miller used this midweek Coffee Talk to do something he says the movement has dodged for too long. He talked about money. The TNM had just launched the Catalyst campaign, the largest fundraising push in its history, and Miller wanted to set the context for why it is necessary rather than apologize for asking. Freeing a country, he said, does not happen on the budget of a softball booster club for a town of ten thousand. Texas is the ninth largest economy on earth, thirty million people, sixteen million registered voters, and the campaign to win independence has to be fought at that scale.

The numbers did the arguing. Pulling from the latest campaign finance reports, Miller walked through Greg Abbott raising nearly 25 million dollars in a single reporting period and Beto O’Rourke out-raising him at 27.6 million, including a one million dollar check from George Soros. The detail he kept circling back to was geography. Nearly half of O’Rourke’s money and a meaningful slice of Abbott’s came from outside Texas, which is exactly why the TNM has spent years demanding a ban on out-of-state campaign contributions and exactly why Austin politicians who feed on that money refuse to pass one. If the opposition is writing million dollar checks now, Miller warned, expect a billion or two poured into Texas to frighten voters when a referendum is on the line.

Then came the good news, drawn from the same SurveyUSA poll that produced the 66 percent figure. Buried in the cross-tabs were questions about whether people would contribute to an organization working for independence. Run against sixteen million registered voters and a realistic referendum turnout near 85 percent, Miller’s math put the pool of likely small-dollar givers in the millions. His point was blunt. Beto’s supporters are not more committed than ours, and something beats nothing. He also could not resist the Texas Democratic convention, which adjourned without passing a platform after a quorum call revealed that fewer than a third of its delegates had shown up. He even noted Jonathan Falwell, guest-preaching at Dan Patrick’s home church, slipping in that secession was not a bad idea and deserved more thought.

Questions answered in this episode

• What is the breakdown of TNM support among Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and independents, and why are independents and non-voters the real wild card in the polling?
• How do we stop out-of-state money from flooding Texas campaigns before we are independent?
• As a physician, how do I talk to people in health care who fear losing Medicare payments or insurance coverage after independence?
• Is the TNM talking with other states about their own independence efforts?
• When Texit happens, what recourse will enlisted Texans in the US military have to leave and join a Texas military?
• Is the Catalyst campaign just a fundraiser, or is it the vehicle for putting Texas first?
• With the border this dangerous for truckers and residents, what is the TNM doing to bring the crisis to light?
• Since taxpayer money props up the opposition, does the TNM take any taxpayer funding?