11 Oregon counties votes to secede from state
The counties voted to secede from Oregon and join Idaho over high taxes and soft on crime policies.
Residents of Oregon are considering secession over an "east-west" political divide as many believe the state is no longer "unified" and are frustrated that the liberal politics of the west are held over east.
The New York Times reported Saturday that residents of eastern Oregon were frustrated over the politics in the western part of the state.
"Oregon is not a unified state to me anymore," Corey Cook, an eastern Oregon resident, told the Times. "To say that I’m an Oregonian is a geographic truth, but it doesn’t really have meaning to me the way that it did before I lived in eastern Oregon."
The outlet reported that ballot measures, which require meetings about the idea of a possible secession, have passed in 11 counties.
SECEDE FROM OREGON? 'GREATER IDAHO' IS ON THE BALLOT IN TWO CONSERVATIVE COUNTIES
BROOKINGS, OR - JUNE 13: Welcome to Oregon sign in Brookings, Oregon on June 13, 1981. (Photo by Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Several secession movements have gained traction recently amid growing political division across the country.
The "Greater Idaho" movement seeks to incorporate about 13 Oregon counties, or 63% of the state's landmass and 9% of its population, within Idaho's borders.
Idaho's state representatives voted to advance a resolution requiring formal talks about how to relocate the state boundary.
"Eastern Oregon largely gets treated as western Oregon’s playground," James Nash, a Marine Corps veteran and eastern Oregon resident, told the Times.
TWO ADDITIONAL COUNTIES VOTE TO BECOME PART OF ‘GREATER IDAHO’
A rural sign advertises the Greater Idaho movement. (Greater Idaho)
He said he plans to vote in favor of his county joining the secession movement but does not support implementing the idea, the New York Times reported.
"I don’t think there is a historical precedent to say ‘this is going to work,’" he said. "I’d just rather we figure out how to restore Oregon to a better place."
Idaho's top state senate Democrat said in early March that the "Greater Idaho" movement to absorb rural Oregon counties would be "bad for the country."
The Greater Idaho movement seeks to shift the border of red-state Idaho west to the Cascade Mountains in an effort to ease the political tension between urban and rural Oregonians. (Greater Idaho)
"I'm very pleased this measure has virtually no chance of advancing into reality," Idaho Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D, told Fox News Digital. "It would be bad for all involved and bad for the country, and I am opposed to it at all levels."
Former Oregon House Speaker Mark Simmons wrote an op-ed in the Idaho Statesman, a daily newspaper, in February to explain why he supports the "Greater Idaho" movement.
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"Idaho would have the satisfaction of freeing rural, conservative communities from progressive blue-state law," Simmons wrote. "We are dismayed by the manner in which Oregon government has marginalized our values and villainized our resource-based livelihoods. This is why our counties voted 75% Republican last year (Idaho voted 67% Republican)."
Fox News Digital's Aaron Kliegman contributed to this report.
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