They have had enough.
Following the November 5 election, a movement in a slew of rural counties across deep blue states like Illinois and California to secede and form new states appears to be gaining traction.
Conservative rural residents are observing their peers leaving for lower-taxed and less-regulated red states, but they are ready to remain in their current location, yearning for a break from their state’s urban sectors.
The New Illinois State has drafted a new constitution and promoted plans to “Leave Illinois Without Moving.” On Election Day, seven rural counties in Illinois voted to consider breaking away from the state.
“There’s a lot of people in Chicago, and I think they make a lot of decisions that affect people downstate,” Iroquois County resident Phil Gioja told the Wall Street Journal.
“It’s just sending a message that, ‘Hey, you know, there are people that would like to be part of the conversation and often aren’t.'”
In Iroquois County, approximately 73% of voters supported the idea of merging with other counties in Illinois, with the exception of Cook County, which includes Chicago, and forming a new state. Chicago is home to approximately 40% of Illinois’ population.
While Gioja does not anticipate a divorce anytime soon, some supporters of a rural divorce believe that an opportunity will arise.
“We always believed that our best opportunity to negotiate our way out of Illinois was when Illinois was approaching that financial cliff—it’s been on a path toward it for years,” G.H. Merritt, chair of New Illinois State, told the outlet.
A similar movement has also gained traction in California. The New California State organization intends to split up the counties outside of the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Los Angeles.
“I’m so flipping excited,” Paul Preston, the founder of New California State, told the Wall Street Journal.
Preston bashed the Golden State to the outlet as a “one-party communist state, and technically, they have seceded from the Union already.”
But his and other like-minded movements face an uphill battle. To win statehood, they would need the green light from state legislatures — difficult to lock down from the states where they’d like to splinter off.
Hawaii was the last state formally added to the US. There have been efforts by Puerto Rico and Washington DC to attain statehood, but none of them have garnered much steam.
Following the November 5 election, California Gov. Gavin Newsom went to red counties and told voters, “Message received.”
“I do not care who you voted for. During one of his stops, Newsom stated that he cares about Trump supporters, Robert Kennedy Jr supporters, Tucker Carlson supporters, Charlie Kirk supporters, Ben Shapiro supporters, and all people.
Out in Oregon, the Greater Idaho movement hopes to redraw state lines so that rural counties beyond the Cascade mountain range can join their conservative neighbor Idaho.
“The State of Oregon has said we’re not going to talk about it and are basically holding people in Eastern Oregon captive against our wishes,” Matt McCaw, executive director of Greater Idaho, told the outlet.
A similar movement occurred in three Maryland counties — Garrett, Allegany, and Washington — in 2021, when they asked to join West Virginia and received support from Governor Jim Justice (R). Neither of those counties has moved over.
The urban-rural divide has long had an impact on domestic politics. President-elect Donald Trump had a significant advantage over Vice President Kamala Harris in rural areas.
Trump, 78, also managed to erode the Democrats’ long-held hold on urban centers, significantly narrowing the margins in traditionally blue states compared to the 2020 election.
Throughout his campaign, the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president slammed liberal-run cities, claiming they were overtaxed, crime-ridden, and falling apart.
