Another right-leaning county in eastern Oregon has voted to secede from the Democrat-run state and join neighboring Idaho, according to reports.
Crook County residents passed the measure by a 53% majority Tuesday, making it the 13th county in the state to sign onto the movement known as “Greater Idaho,” NewsNation reported.
“The voters of eastern Oregon have spoken loudly and clearly about their desire to see border talks move forward,” said the Greater Idaho movement’s executive director Matt McCaw.
“With this latest result in Crook County, there’s no excuse left for the Legislature and Governor to continue to ignore the people’s wishes.”
Greater Idaho would see more than half of Oregon’s territory leave the Beaver State and join Republican-run Idaho to the east.
The move would shift Idaho’s border 200 miles west past the heart of Oregon.
Greater Idaho began in earnest in 2020 and quickly began picking up traction, with eleven of the state’s 36 counties voting to endorse the idea by 2022.
Driving the force is a sharp political divide between the more sparsely populated, rural and conservative interior of Oregon, and the liberal coastal cities with population hubs like Portland and the state’s capital of Salem.
If Greater Idaho were achieved Oregon would lose two-thirds of its land but only about 10% of its population — a disparity which has left the conservative interior of the state feeling like their laws are being passed by people with no connection to their lifestyle and beliefs.
“The Oregon/Idaho line was established 163 years ago and is now outdated,” the movement’s website reads. “It makes no sense in its current location because it doesn’t match the location of the cultural divide in Oregon.”
Greater Idaho seeks to include 17 counties in its movement, made up of 14 full counties and three partial counties.
Even if the movement gets all the votes it needs, the process would be far from over.
In order to secede, the state legislatures of both Oregon and Idaho would need to approve the measure, and then the U.S. Congress would also need to approve.
State borders have been redrawn in the past — including the territory of Maine becoming a state independent of Massachusetts in 1820 — but never before has a large swatch of land and citizens seceded to join another state.
