A new group is calling for Oregon’s rural areas to secede from and to create a new state called Greater Idaho, according to Fox News.
The group — called Move Oregon’s Border — has been pushing for this move for about two years.
The group’s leader, Mike McCarter, said people in the rural areas want to “get out from underneath the chokehold of Northwestern Oregon.”
- “We’ve watched the shift take place in Oregon politics where the primary concern of the Legislature is Northwest Oregon. That’s where 78% of the state’s population is based. They tend to forget that every law that you pass in the state affects us out in the rural economies, too,” McCarter told Fox News.
Why? McCarter said it’s tied to lower taxes and more freedoms.
What’s being done?
There was a measure on the 2020 ballot for local officials to meet on the subject. Two counties passed the measure, while two denied it, according to Fox News.
According to East Idaho News, it’s unlikely the two counties — Jefferson and Union — will join Idaho since it would require votes from the Oregon and Idaho legislatures and the U.S. Congress.
- In total, McCarter hopes to see 19 counties secede from Oregon.
- “I’m not really sure what the chances are, if you’re going to put into odds or bet on it,” McCarter said, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. “But if we don’t attempt to do something like that we continue to go down a road of frustration about the state Legislature not paying attention to rural Oregon.”