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The movement involving Republican counties that want to leave Oregon for Idaho is growing: "The people are the ones in charge"

Thousands of citizens voted to redraw state borders to join 'Greater Idaho.'

Fachada exterior del edificio del Capitolio del Estado de Oregón en Salem, Oregón.

Oregon State Capitol (Wikimedia Commons)

Published by
Santiago Ospital

Tired of living in a Democratic state? Just leave. But don't go alone: Take your entire county with you. That is the mission of Greater Idaho movement. It wants to redraw state lines so that Republican counties leave Oregon for Idaho.

The movement, which began more than five years ago, gained traction recently when 5,086 residents of Crook County voted to support joining the neighboring state. That accounts for the majority, with 53.44% of the electorate.

Crook 12 other counties that voted to leave Oregon. The goal is 17.

The organization claims that the idea is neither crazy nor unprecedented. They point out that Oregon moved its boundary line in 1958 and West Virginia in 1863 (twice). They claim that all you need is a pact between the legislative assemblies of the corresponding states, added to the approval of Congress.

"We call on the Governor, Speaker of the House, and Senate President to sit down with us and discuss next steps," the organization's executive director, Matt McCaw, said after Tuesday's results.

"In our system, the people are the ones in charge, and it's time for the leaders representing them to follow through," added the president of the movement, Mike McCarter after explaining:

For the last three years, we've been going directly to voters and asking them what they want for their state government. What they're telling us through these votes is that they want their leaders to move the border.

People's main complaint is that they do not feel represented by elected officials. They say they will never be because it is impossible to persuade their neighbors: "We tried that. Only 25% of Oregonians who are registered to vote are registered Republican."

For them, the difference with the rest of the state is not only seen at the polls: "The state of Oregon is divided geographically by the Cascade Mountain Range and that geographic divide is also a huge cultural divide," McCaw argued in a recent interview with Fox News.

On the west side of Oregon you have a different climate, it's a different economy, it's a different culture and more urban. It's a very different place than the east side, where there are agricultural people who are very conservative and traditional.

These differences, McCaw assured, translate into different positions when it comes to immigration, taxes, the right to bear arms, decriminalizing drugs, etc... If eastern Oregon thinks one way, the West thinks the opposite.

Deep in the argument of the Greater Idaho movement lies the idea that state lines serve to bring together those who think and believe alike. Thirteen counties agreed. There are four more to go.

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