That's enough.
The push to secede and form a new state in countless rural counties across deep blue states like Illinois and California appears to be gaining momentum in the wake of the Nov. 5 election.
Rural conservative residents are looking to their brethren taking refuge in red states with lower taxes and less regulation, but they are ready to stay there and are eager to divorce the states' urban areas. are.
A group called “New Illinois” drafted a new constitution and championed a plan to “leave Illinois without moving.” On election day, Seven Rural Counties of Illinois Voted to consider secession from the state.
“There's a lot of people in Chicago, and I think they're making a lot of decisions that affect people down in the state,” said Phil Gioja, an Iroquois County native. told the Wall Street Journal.
“It just sends the message, 'Some people want to be part of the conversation, but often they don't.'”
Approximately 73% of voters in Iroquois County supported the idea of uniting with other Illinois counties, excluding Cook County, which includes Chicago, to form a new state. Chicago is home to approximately 40% of Illinois' population.
Although Gioja has no plans to separate anytime soon, some rural divorce advocates think the trigger for a divorce is coming.
“We have always believed that the best opportunity to negotiate an exit from Illinois is when the state of Illinois approaches the fiscal cliff. The fiscal cliff has been heading toward that point for years. It's moving forward,” New Illinois Assembly Speaker GH Merritt told the outlet.
A similar movement is taking root in California. The new California organization wants to separate counties other than the Bay Area, Sacramento and Los Angeles.
“We're very excited,” New California founder Paul Preston told the Wall Street Journal.
Preston thoroughly criticized the Golden State, calling it “a one-party communist state, and technically speaking, it has already seceded from the Union.”
But he and other like-minded movements face an uphill battle. Achieving statehood requires permission from the state legislature, but it is difficult to lock down states that want to secede.
Hawaii was the last state officially added to the United States. There have been previous statehood efforts by Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., but none have gained much traction.
After the Nov. 5 election, California Governor Gavin Newsom said: He visited red counties and told voters: Received. “
“I don't care who you voted for. “I care about Trump supporters, I care about Robert Kennedy Jr. supporters, I care about Tucker Carlson supporters, I care about Charlie Kirk supporters, I care about Ben Shapiro supporters, I care about all people,” Newsom said during his visit.
In Oregon, the Greater Idaho Movement wants to reshape the state's borders so that rural counties across the Cascades join neighboring conservative-run Idaho.
“Oregon has said they're not going to talk about this, and they're basically holding people in eastern Oregon against our will,” Matt McCaw, executive director of Greater Idaho, told the magazine. I'm doing it,” he said.
A similar movement has taken place in three Maryland counties (Garrett, Alleghany, and Washington), which sought and gained access to West Virginia. Support from Governor Jim Justice (Republican) None of those counties have moved.
The urban-rural divide has long had ripple effects on domestic politics. President-elect Donald Trump enjoyed a significant advantage in rural areas over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump, 78, also succeeded in chipping away at Democrats' long-held hold on urban centers, dramatically narrowing their margins in traditionally blue states compared to the 2020 election. Ta.
Throughout his campaign, the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president attacked liberal-run cities, claiming they were overtaxed, crime-ridden and falling apart.
