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SBOE Member Who Signed TNM Pledge
Takes Aim at Abbott in Primary Election
Capitol Inside
December 2, 2025
Fueled by a temporary lack of interest in a reboot of the Lone Star State as an independent nation, the Texas Nationalist Movement has jump-start a seccession quest as a Texas First crusade with an agenda that a slate of candidates have pledged to support if elected in 2026.
The pledge-signers that the TNM is touting on a Take Texas Back web site include nearly a dozen state representatives, a similar number who are running for the Legislature in open races and contests with incumbents and at least one sitting statewide official in Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
The list of current officeholders that the nationalist group is promoting also features Evelyn Brooks - a Frisco Republican who's giving up a seat on the State Board of Education so she can run instead for the position that Governor Greg Abbott is seeking again at the polls next year. Brooks, a member of the SBOE member for the past three years, filed for the gubernatorial competition on Monday at the Texas Republican Party headquarters in Austin.
Brooks would make history as the state's first governor who's a Black female if she ousted Abbott in the March 3 primary election or subsequent spring runoff and defeated the Democratic nominee in the general election 11 months from now.
The ring of contenders for the GOP in the gubernatorial sweepstakes includes Wimberly physician and former Green Beret Pete "Doc" Chambers, another veteran in Stephen Samuelson and Arturo Espinosa, a chemical engineer who waged an unsuccessful bid for San Antonio mayor earlier this year. Brooks is the only member of that particular group who appears on the TNM's Take Texas Back site. But the race's other challengers could qualify for such a distinction by adding their signatures to the new Texas First pledge.
Despite the historical potential that Brooks bring to the race, she might find a battle with the third-term incumbent governor to be an impossible challenge based on Abbott's edge in the fundraising arena as the top leader in Texas since the first month of 2015. Abbott, for example, ended June with $86.1 million in the campaign bank. Brooks, in contrast, reported an outstanding loan of $3,265 on June 30 and $0.00 cash on hand. But Brooks hadn't entered the conversation about the governor's race at that point in time - and the funding disparity could be tough to overcome with the belated passing of the hat for the bout with Abbott on the ballot three months from now.
The chatter about secession in far-right ranks grew loud when Democrat Joe Biden was leading the USA for four years before Republican Donald Trump reclaimed the White House last fall. But conservatives who envisioned a break from the United States of America put the rhetoric on the backburner with a president who most have supported fanatically running the show in a second term.
The current pledge for candidates begins with a promise "to place the interests of Texas and Texans before any other nation, state, political entity, organization or individual" as the opening bullet point. The second line is a vow to uphold the state constitutional right "to alter, reform or abolish their government" before a promise to back legislation that authorizes an election on Texas "reasserting its status as an independent nation" as long as they're in office until such a vote is conducted. The fourth and last bullet item is a pledge to put Texas first by working for a "fair and expedient separation" of Texas from the federal government if a majority of the voters here back such a move.
None of nine rookie state House members who signed the Texas First pledge before the 2024 general election pushed as promised for a statewide referendum on an independent Texas Republic reboot. Such a move might have had the potential to backfire with Trump in the White House.
The current Texas legislators who've signed the TNM pledge are all 2025 freshmen class members who were more conservative than most of their peers. The list includes State Reps. Andy Hopper of Decatur, Shelley Luther of Tom Bean, Wes Virdell of Brady, Keresa Richardson of McKinney, Janis Holt of Silsbee, David Lowe of Fort Worth, Mitch Little of Lewisville, AJ Louderback of Victoria and Brent Money of Greenville.
A handful of challengers have added their names to the pledge in the runup to races for House seats that incumbents like State Rep. Jeff Leach of Allen, Candy Noble of Lucas, Will Metcalf of Conroe, Stan Kitzman of Rosenberg and Stan Gerdes of Smithville are facing in the March 3 primary election.
more to come ...
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