Two Fed-Up Oregon Counties Vote to Leave State, Become Part of Conservative Idaho
Fed up with constantly being overshadowed by radically liberal city centers like Bend, Eugene, Portland and the state capital of Salem, two Oregon counties voted to leave the state and join Idaho.
Morrow and Wheeler counties join nine others already part of the Greater Idaho movement.
Started in 2020, the Greater Idaho movement seeks to bring underrepresented rural Oregon counties together under a state that more closely aligns with their interests and beliefs. The counties make up close to two-thirds of Oregon’s territory but less than 10 percent of its population.
“Every win has been heart-wrenching because we wanted to know what citizens truly wanted,” said Mike McCarter, one of the founders of the movement, according to the New York Post.
“We don’t want to impose anything, but this does send a message to the state legislature that they have to take care of us.”
McCarter, 75, said the fight isn’t over, as there is a long negotiation process still to come, but indicated that he isn’t fighting for himself.
“This isn’t for me anymore. I am doing this for my children and grandchildren,” he said.
Former President Donald Trump won eastern Oregon overwhelmingly in 2020, receiving in some counties up to 80 percent of the vote, the Post reported.
“The movement is plain and simple, and all about values, not politics,” said Jonathan Tallman, a 46-year-old farmer and business owner living in Morrow County.
“We don’t relate to people in downtown Portland trying to push their agenda on us. … I don’t want to be a part of what they are pushing, and to be honest, I don’t feel safe going to Portland anymore.”
This is a common sentiment across America these days, as lower-population rural areas are dominated by high-population and increasingly liberal urban centers.
You can see this pattern in New York, where heavily red northern counties surrounding New York City are drowned out by big-city politics and leftist policies.
In many cases, this has led to a mass exodus from liberal strongholds like California and New York, as seen in the landslide conservative win in Florida in the midterm elections.
It seems that as Democrats continue to fail their constituencies, fed-up conservatives are finding creative ways to take their tax money and votes somewhere that will more closely represent their values.
Learn more and get involved in the Greater Idaho movement here.
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