If any Texas Republicans had never heard of Larry Kilgore, they probably have now.

Kilgore, 44, of Mansfield, is an anti-abortion activist and perennial Republican candidate. Until Gov. Rick Perry piped up, he was the only candidate talking about Texas seceding from the United States.

Now he's the video star of the nightly TV news report "Texas: Outta Here or Not?"

At a secession rally at the Texas Capitol on Saturday, he pointed to the U.S. flag and shouted: "I hate that flag up there! I hate the United States government!  . . .  The U.S. flag is coming down from over Texas. It will not be part of Texas anymore!"

Back in 2004, when Kilgore was getting 474 votes in a losing Texas House race, nobody cared what he said.

But then a funny thing happened to Larry the Secession Guy: Texas Republicans started voting for him.

In the last two elections, 275,848 Republicans have voted for a candidate who wants Texas to secede and once called for the state to "reinstate biblical justice: restitution, floggings and execution."

In 2006, Kilgore challenged Perry and got more than 50,000 votes. In 2008, against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Kilgore got 225,649 votes.

"I think things are going my way," Kilgore, a telecommunications consultant, said by phone Tuesday, proudly counting the new hits on his campaign Web site. "I'm picking up more votes every time."

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