New Hampshire Rejects Bid to Secede From US

Legislators voted against bill that would send the matter to voters.

The New Hampshire State House, the state capitol building of New Hampshire, in Concord, N.H., on Feb. 16, 2023. Michael M. Santiago /Getty Images

A proposed constitutional amendment for New Hampshire to secede from the United States was rejected by state lawmakers on Feb. 1.

The New Hampshire House of Representatives turned down the bill without debate.

Introduced by state Rep. Jason Gerhard, a Republican, the proposed amendment to the New Hampshire Constitution stated that “if the national debt reaches $40 trillion, New Hampshire shall declare independence and proceed as a sovereign nation.”

The national debt is currently $34 trillion, with no signs of slowing down.

Mr. Gerhard wrote in a recent letter, “we are seeing federal overreach like never before” and that “we must live free of the tyranny of the federal government.”

In the scenario that state legislators approved the amendment, it would have been submitted to voters as part of the November election. Constitutional amendments in the state require three-fifths vote in each legislative chamber and a two-thirds vote by residents. Several constitutional amendments, including one that enables taxpayers to sue the government over inappropriate spending, have been approved through this process in recent years.

The New Hampshire House rejected the bill during a session, with 341 members turning it down by voting for a motion to indefinitely postpone consideration and 24 voting against the motion.

State Rep. Matthew Santonastaso, a Republican, spoke up in support of debating legislation, telling colleagues that “the federal government has no guardrails on its ever-increasing debt” and “no one alive today has consented to be governed by this federal government, in opposition to the idea of self-government.”

New Hampshire Rep. Joseph Sweeney, another Republican, was among those in opposition.

“There is no practical way for this bill to move forward,” he said.

It was unclear how most members voted because a request for a roll call vote was turned down.

Of the 398 members currently in the New Hampshire House, 200 are Republicans and 195 are Democrats. The rest are independents.

A similar measure was rejected by the same body in 2022.

A 2023 University of New Hampshire poll found most respondents were not aware of the movement to secede and only 20 percent said they supported holding a vote to secede.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1868 that secession cannot happen “except through revolution, or through consent of the states.” The case dealt with Texas seceding from the United States during the Civil War. Justices sided with people who bought bonds from Texas, which had claimed the bonds were no longer valid because it had seceded.

Members on Thursday also rejected a bill that would establish a commission to consider how an independent New Hampshire would act, including which currency it would use and how law enforcement would be handled. Mr. Santonastaso introduced the measure.

The bill would have established a commission made up of three House members, members of the public, and others and had them “study the economic, legal, and sociological aspects of New Hampshire exerting its sovereign state rights.”

Texas Movement

People in other states, including Texas, have also moved to secede from the United States.

The Texas Nationalist Movement said it collected enough signatures to present succession to Republican voters, but the Texas Republican Party in 2023 rejected the bid to put the question in a nonbinding fashion before primary voters, which could have then drawn support from lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state.

But Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi said the votes were not gathered properly.

Texas authorities, meanwhile, have increasingly clashed with federal officials over the U.S.-Mexico border. State authorities seized a park at the border and have been blocking federal agents from entering, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said that the federal government had “broken the compact between the United States and the states.”

“It validates and confirms the position we’ve had all along, which is that if Texas ever wants to truly secure its border … the only way we’re going to do it is as an independent and self-governing nation,” Daniel Miller, head of the Texas Nationalist Movement, told the Texas Tribune.

Mr. Gerhard wrote to the movement recently, saying that New Hampshire and Texas should maintain a relationship as they work towards independence.

“We believe that the shared principles, desires, and plights of Texans and Granite Staters highlight the importance of maintaining a relationship with one another. As New Hampshire makes its efforts to secure independence, it promises to strengthen the voices of both regions. Together, both states can uphold the principle of freedom and autonomy,” he wrote.

“Texas is faced with an immediate crisis—an invasion at our southern border that the federal government is choosing to blatantly ignore. This crisis directly affects the lives of Texans right here and now, prompting our independence debate even more. So much so that the question at hand is not if Texas will achieve independence, but when,” Mr. Miller said in response. “When the time comes, Texans everywhere should be delighted to have a state like New Hampshire on its side.