As President Donald Trump floats grand ideas like reacquiring the Panama Canal and taking over Greenland, some rural residents of Illinois and Oregon are promoting geopolitical change of their own: They want to break away from their states, and perhaps unite with Indiana and Idaho.
Proponents say they have more in common with their rural brethren across state lines than they do with urbanites in Chicago and Portland, Oregon. And they contend the Democratic-led cities have so much clout in state government that rural, Republican voices get drowned out.
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In the last five years, voters in 33 Illinois counties have been asked if they want to consider separating from Chicago’s Cook County to form a new state. Each time, a majority said yes.
Some politicians in neighboring Indiana seem up for the idea. The state's House of Representatives recently advanced legislation that would welcome Illinois counties into Indiana's fold. Such a deal would mark the first major realignment of states since West Virginia separated from Virginia to stick with the Union during the Civil War. Despite a bit of local momentum, there are major obstacles to rejiggering state lines within the U.S. For starters, the states relinquishing counties would have to agree to it, which is a long shot. Congress would have to approve, too.
State boundaries have changed at least 50 times throughout U.S. history, according the National Center for Interstate Compacts at The Council of State Governments. Many changes have been relatively minor, accounting for shifting rivers or reestablishing markers from long-ago surveys.
But organizers in Illinois and Oregon hope to capitalize on the current political environment.
“With this polarization,” said G.H. Merritt, chair of the pro-breakaway group New Illinois. “I don’t know, man, it might just reach a tipping point.”
Why do some in Illinois want to separate?
At least three organizations are pushing for some reconfiguration of Illinois counties to separate from Chicago and its closest suburbs.
Cook County contains about 40% of the state’s population, including the majority of Black, Asian and Hispanic residents, and is known for its cultural treasures, deep pension debt and a history of crime. Democrats dominate Chicago-area legislative districts, while Republicans represent most other parts of the state.
To Merritt, the problem is that ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1964 that all legislative seats should be allocated based on population rather than counties, Chicago has had all the political clout.
“What we experience in Illinois is very similar to what the founders in Colonial times were complaining about," she said. "We have taxation without representation.”
The ballot measures voters favored would allow officials in each county to work with those from other counties to form a new state. But the proposals stop short of declaring independence.
Indiana lawmakers responded to those votes by advancing a bill that could start state-level talks.
“Instead of seceding, we think we have something to offer over here,” Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, a Republican who sponsored the measure, said in an interview. He noted that his state has lower taxes and higher economic growth than Illinois.
But don't count on Illinois being receptive: Earlier this year, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, called the Indiana legislation “a stunt” that would never amount to anything.
What's going on in Oregon?
For several years, residents in rural, Republican-leaning eastern Oregon have been laying the groundwork to separate from the Democratic-dominated counties on the western side of the Cascade Mountains. Their goal is to join reliably red Idaho.
The Greater Idaho movement has won nonbinding elections in 13 counties. Supporters have been holding town halls, selling hats and T-shirts and erecting billboards with messages such as “Release Eastern Oregon.”
Idaho’s House passed a measure two years ago inviting Oregon to enter into discussions. But similar measures remain buried in committees in the Oregon Legislature, with scant prospects.
"At this point, the state of Oregon is holding us captive,” said Matt McCaw, executive director of Greater Idaho.
State boundaries do shift, but not often, or by much
It has been over 150 years since entire counties have shifted states. After Virginia seceded from the U.S. in 1861, union loyalists formed the new state of West Virginia. The fate of two counties remained in dispute until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1871 that they belonged to West Virginia.
Since then, there have been numerous failed attempts at realignment. Writer Norman Mailer ran for mayor of New York in 1969, calling for the city to become the 51st state; five southern New Jersey counties voted to secede in 1980; and California has withstood several proposals to split the state. Earlier this year, an Iowa lawmaker proposed buying nine southern Minnesota counties.
Geographer Garrett Dash Nelson once proposed redrawing all state lines to organize them around metro areas. But he acknowledges the challenges.
“I don’t see much evidence that there’s a lot of real political will or interest in redrawing state lines,” said Nelson, president and head curator of the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library. “It would be such an enormous lift.”
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Associated Press writer Claire Rush contributed to this report.