The campaign to expand Idaho — and split Oregon — is racking up wins
The movement to expand Idaho’s borders is gaining steam in Eastern Oregon.
Voters in Wallowa County, Oregon, last month made the county the 12th in the state to vote in favor of a measure connected to leaving the state to join Idaho in a vote finalized last week. The proposal, which requires the county board of commissioners to meet three times annually to discuss joining Idaho, passed by just seven votes, according to Oregon’s secretary of state’s office.
To actually change state borders would require an act of Congress and approval from state legislatures in both states, but the county votes act as a gauge of interest. Organizers behind the “Greater Idaho” movement say their cause is a long shot, but the group now has seen 12 Eastern Oregon counties voted in favor of measures about the proposal.
All three counties that border Idaho — Wallowa, Baker and Malheur — have voted in favor of “Greater Idaho,” as have Sherman, Morrow, Union, Jefferson, Wheeler, Grant, Klamath, Lake and Harney counties.
Crook County, Oregon, is expected to vote next. Crook County Judge Seth Crawford told KTVZ in Bend, Oregon, that the county court had voted to send a measure about discussing a border change to voters next May.
“I’ve always wanted to have people weigh in on it,” Crawford told the station.
The move to split Oregon started in 2020 and comes as state governments grow increasingly partisan with the rise of single-party states. Supporters say changing the border would let Eastern Oregon conservatives live in a state with politics that matches their own while leaving liberal Western Oregonians with their own state.
In an editorial in the Bend Bulletin, Greater Idaho organizer Mike McCarter said Eastern Oregon is asking for its freedom.
“Idaho is a red state that respects the value of faith, family and rural jobs,” McCarter said. “If the state line is relocated, then Western Oregon conservatives could move to Idaho and still be within driving distance of friends and family. Your communities and our communities don’t need to share a state government. Let’s live and let live. You would still be welcome to visit!”
McCarter called the potential to change the border a “win-win solution” and said that it would improved the income taxes in both Oregon and Idaho.
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“Why should Western Oregon’s taxes, including Bend’s, go to counties who don’t appreciate it, who vote against Oregon taxes and programs, and who do not consent to Oregon’s government?” he wrote. “Letting Eastern Oregon counties get their state governance from Idaho would allow those tax dollars to be used for the rest of Oregon.”
Idaho lawmakers introduced legislation earlier this year in favor of discussing the potential to move the border, but in Oregon, where Democrats hold majorities, the proposal could have a harder time gaining traction. Opponents to changing the borders are organizing. Ahead of the vote in Wallowa County, the group Western States Strategies sent mailers and ran digital ads opposing the measure, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
