Conservatives in Oregon fed up with the far-left policies coming from the state legislature in Salem may have hope on the horizon. The Greater Idaho Movement, a secession movement with allies in both the Oregon and Idaho state legislatures, is making progress in its efforts to convince 15 conservative counties in rural Oregon to secede and join Idaho.
11 eastern Oregon counties have already voted in favor of joining Idaho. Due to this success, Idaho state lawmakers have introduced legislation to begin discussions with the Oregon State Legislature on relocating the Idaho/Oregon state boundary.
A Republican State Senator in Oregon introduced a bill to start talks with Idaho last month.
Mike McCarter, the leader of The Greater Idaho Movement, argues his endeavor will give eastern Oregon voters an actual voice in state affairs should the counties officially join. Unlike the urban liberal areas which dominate Oregon politics, Idaho is a rural, conservative state with traditional values.
McCarter also envisions the Greater Idaho Movement will provide a blueprint for other conservative counties in blue states to follow should eastern Oregon join Idaho.
The Oregon movement follows the New California movement that has been reported previously at TGP.
The Process of the Formation of the State of New California Is Well Under Way
Here is the story from the Daily Mail.
The leader of east Oregon’s plan to leave liberal Portland behind and join conservative Idaho is moving fast.
Mike McCarter has a $70,000 budget for lobbyists in the two states, has seen allies introduce legislation in Oregon last month and has a bill ready to go in Idaho that would accelerate discussions for 15 counties to jump the border.
If it works, he says other red counties will have a model for how to dump their urban, Democratic rulers.
The leader of the Greater Idaho Movement runs the campaign from a cramped office in a cabin outside La Pine.
Its walls are decorated with the head of a musk deer and muzzle-loading rifles.
It could not be further from the image of Oregon as a haven for woke politics, where a majority voted to decriminalize hard drugs in 2020, where coastal valleys provide the perfect climate for the delicate pinot noir grape and where the liberal lifestyle was sent up in the TV comedy Portlandia.
As America divides between urban and rural, Democratic cities and Republican hiss and prairies, eastern Oregon is at the forefront of reshaping state lines.
Fair representation, said McCarter, lay across the border with Boise, rather than Oregon’s state capital Salem.
That remains a longshot. McCarter knows that Oregon is unlikely to give up 15 counties, 400,000 people, about 63 percent of its land without a fight.
But so far 11 eastern counties have voted in favor (or at least in favor of legislation requiring the county to discuss moving).
McCarter said his movement provided a road map for other parts of the country, where there is a growing divide between urban and rural America
‘Chicago controls Illinois. Atlanta controls Georgia. New York City controls all of New York state,’ he said. ‘And there’s a distinct difference between urban and rural.’