Disgruntled rural voters in Oregon, displeased with the blue direction their state is going in, want their counties to cross the border and become part of Idaho. Five eastern Oregon counties voted Tuesday to consider seceding from Oregon and joining their red neighbor as part of the Move Oregon's Border for a Greater Idaho movement, according to The Hill. Add these five counties to the two that already voted to secede last November, and you've got a total of seven counties itching to break away.
"Rural counties have become increasingly outraged by laws coming out of the Oregon Legislature that threaten our livelihoods, our industries, our wallet, our gun rights, and our values," Mike McCarter, president of the Greater Idaho movement, has said (according to the Idaho Statesman). "We tried voting those legislators out but rural Oregon is outnumbered and our voices are now ignored. This is our last resort."
Idaho is open to accepting Oregon's red counties, but actually changing the Oregon-Idaho border would be difficult.
From The Hill:
Oregon voters favored President Biden over former President Trump by a 56 percent to 40 percent margin in 2020, but voters in those five rural counties gave between 69 percent and 79 percent of the vote to Trump. https://8bfd6b5644505f07eefaf50fcab4aaa9.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
They join two other rural counties — Jefferson and Union — whose voters approved measures promoting a move to Idaho last year.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) has said he supports incorporating more Oregonians within his state's borders. But altering state lines is extremely unlikely.
Actually moving the lines would require a vote from the Oregon legislature, which is firmly controlled by Democrats. Oregon and Idaho would have to strike a formal deal, which would then need to be ratified by the U.S. Congress.
Image by Tequask – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
