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By James Bickerton
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A Texas House committee is scheduled on Wednesday to discuss the implications “of adding to Texas one or more contiguous counties of New Mexico.” The move follows calls in some of New Mexico’s most Republican counties for them to potentially leave the state and join Texas instead.
In January, two GOP New Mexico state representatives introduced a constitutional amendment that would have allowed three or more contiguous counties to secede from the state, though it didn’t make it past the committee stage. Secessionist movements, either aiming to form a new state or join an existing one, exist in a number of states including Oregon and Illinois. However, there is currently no legal mechanism for counties to leave a state without its consent.
If Republican voting counties such as Lea, Roosevelt and Eddy were to leave New Mexico and join Texas, the implications would be dramatic. Money currently flowing from the counties to Santa Fe would be rerouted to Austin while New Mexico, currently a key swing state, would likely become more Democratic.
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"There is zero chance that New Mexicans would allow even one square inch of our state to be annexed by Texas. We understand why Texas covets New Mexico’s oil and gas, and their lawmakers are entitled to hold all the hearings they want. But don’t they have more important things to do than spin their wheels on an idea that’s going nowhere," Michael Coleman, director of communications for New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, told Newsweek Thursday. "The governor is deeply appreciative of all the oil and gas workers in New Mexico, their contribution to the state’s economy and the fact that they have reduced climate warming methane gas emissions by more than half compared to our neighbors in Texas."
Newsweek contacted Texas Governor Greg Abbott for comment via email on Wednesday outside of regular office hours.
Texas House Committee
The Texas House Select Committee on Government Oversight is due to meet at 9 a.m. CDT to discuss the “Texas New Mexico Boundary,” according to its official schedule.
The schedule says it will “study the constitutional, statutory, fiscal, and economic implications of adding to Texas one or more contiguous counties of New Mexico.”
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This will “identify and outline all procedural steps required at both the state and federal level necessary to admit territory currently part of New Mexico into Texas” including considering the United States Constitution, Texas Constitution, New Mexico Constitution and federal statutes.
The committee consists of 13 members, eight Republicans and five Democrats, and is chaired by Republican Cody Vasut.
New Mexico Constitutional Amendment
The debate over counties seceding from New Mexico to Texas intensified in January when two New Mexico House Representatives, Randall Pettigrew of Lovington and Jimmy Mason of Artesia, sponsored a constitutional amendment. The amendment would trigger a secession referendum if at least 15 percent of voters in three or more contiguous counties demanded it.
To be successful, the referendum would require a two-thirds majority in each county, along with unanimous approval from the county commission. Congress would be required to pass a law allowing the secession and any departing county would have to settle any outstanding debts with New Mexico.
This amendment was referred to the New Mexico House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee but was not adopted for a hearing or vote, effectively killing it.
Senate Joint Resolution 15, a similar proposal, was introduced to the New Mexico Senate in 2021 by Republican Cliff Pirtle but it failed to progress past the Senate Rules Committee.
Arguments for Secession
Speaking to The Albuquerque Journal, Pettigrew argued Democrats in Santa Fe were exploiting natural resources held in Republican leaning New Mexican counties.
He said: “My colleagues on the left and the Emerge New Mexico people up here want all the money. They just want to spend it the way they want and they want to control oil and gas at the same time. It’s time to take the control away from them.”
Emerge New Mexico is a training program for Democratic women and nonbinary people seeking office in the state.
However, Clayburn Griffin, the vice chair of the Lea County Democratic Party, said “the idea of secession is ridiculous,” adding that Pettigrew was “only looking for ways to divide us instead of doing the work he was elected to do.”
Earlier this month, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, a Republican, shared a map on X showing most of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande as “Reclaimed Texas,” after President Donald Trump posted about renaming New Mexico “New America.”
This territory was once claimed by the Republic of Texas, an independent state between 1836 and 1845 when it joined the United States.
In a statement provided to Newsweek, the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM), which argues for Texas to become an independent country, said it took “no position” on whether any counties in New Mexico should join the Lone Star State but insisted voters in Texas must also have their say.
However, the movement argued support in Republican New Mexico counties is limited, stating: “Nobody in those counties has asked. The idea came from two New Mexico legislators, whose House Joint Resolution 10 would have had New Mexico consent ‘to the secession of three or more contiguous counties.’ It died in committee. TNM found no resolution from the Lea, Eddy, or Roosevelt county commissions asking to join Texas, and no poll of the people who live there.”
Would It Be Legal?
There is currently no legal mechanism that would allow a county to leave New Mexico and become part of Texas. Any such move would require Congressional consent, with federal legislation to create the new boundary, and would likely require the approval of both New Mexican and Texan authorities. New Mexico’s governor and a majority in the legislature are Democrats and there is no indication they would approve secession.
State Secessionist Movements Nationwide
A number of movements already exist across the United States calling for certain counties to leave their state and either join another or form a new one. The Greater Idaho campaign is calling for eastern, generally more conservative, counties of Oregon to leave the state and instead join neighboring Idaho.
Speaking to Newsweek previously, Matt McCaw, executive director of the Greater Idaho Movement, said: “Eastern Oregon and Western Oregon are nothing alike.
“The people are different. They want different things for their communities. But they’re forced into sharing this state government that only causes friction.”
Similarly, voters in 33 Illinois counties have over the past five years voted to secede and form their own state, to move away from the influence of Democratic dominated Chicago. However, state authorities have not consented to any such move.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Emma Lee-Sang
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