Governor Greg Abbott shunned the idea of ‘Texit’ but put out a series of digital advertisements to take advantage of Great Britain’s controversial vote to the leave the European Union – sometimes called Brexit.
In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, Abbott saw an opportunity. Over the 4th of July weekend, Texas put up advertisements on British websites in hopes Brexit will bring business to Texas.
The ad campaign urges companies in the United Kingdom to relocate to Texas and “declare independence from high taxes.”
Spokesman for the Governor’s Office, John Wittman did not know the specific costs of the ads but said it was “a significant amount.”
Texas One, a quasi-governmental marketing component of the state funded the campaign.
“They’re feeling like they are basically being displaced either by migration, immigration or by losing jobs and we see that in the United States too,” said political consultant David Butts.
Butts described Brexit as a “devolution” of governmental entities.
“A sort of tribalism,” Butts said, “there is a tribalism among Texans.”
Particularly in Texas, he said people are frustrated by the same major issues—immigration and economic opportunity— that led voters in Great Britain to exit the EU.
The Brexit vote amplified the call for Texas to secede from the U.S. or what’s been coined as ‘Texit.’
“This is a very unusual year,” Butts said. The 2016 Presidential Election could deepen the political divide in Texas and across the country.
“Both political establishments have been under serious assault,” Butts said. He also said there is a lot of resentment from the working class. He believes, like in Great Britain, the working class in the U.S. feels, “abandon, that’s there’s nothing there for them, that the two parties, neither care.”
In Scotland, two days after the Brexit vote, Donald Trump discredited the idea of Texit. The GOP’s presumptive nominee told reporters Texas will never leave the U.S. “because Texas loves me,” Trump said.
The state’s top ranking Republican, Gov. Abbott is not on board with Texit. During a radio interview he said Texas should not stand as an independent nation because, “We need the United States to be more like Texas,” Abbott said.
