Scottish Independence Vote Spurs Texan Secessionists

Texas Nationalist Movement president Daniel Miller, who wants the state’s legislature to put the secession question on a state-wide ballot, said Scotland’s referendum is a positive sign for his movement.

“If Scotland can do it, so can Texas,” Miller told Reuters. The top US cattle- and oil-producing state would be the 12th largest economy in the world, larger than Mexico or Spain, said Miller, whose organisation has campaigned for secession since the late 1990s.

Miller said Scotland’s referendum has increased interest in the Texas movement and the fact that a free Texas would lose big federal institutions like NASA and multiple military bases was of no concern to him.

“Win or lose, the Scottish referendum is both serving as a source of inspiration and information about what’s happening here in Texas,” Miller said.

A January 2013 Public Policy Polling survey found that about 20 percent of Texas voters would support secession – because of President Barack Obama’s re-election – but 67 percent were opposed.

The state has around 27 million people.

Republicans dominate state politics in the Lone Star State, where no Democrat has won state-wide in two decades. The survey showed much stronger support for secession among Republicans, at 35 percent, than Democrats, at 7 percent.

Texas may be the only state with a movement to cut ties with the nation but several counties in the United States have made attempts at secession.

In 2013, five Colorado counties voted in a non-binding referendum to secede from the state and part of rural Maryland announced its intent to split from metropolitan neighbors.