Last week, several Republican politicians and other officials were pushing back against Democratic Gov. Kate Brown’s orders to stem the spread of the coronavirus, even as Oregon reported increasing amounts of daily COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Other conservatives have begun a more radical plan: Secede from the state and join Idaho.
A group called Move Oregon’s Border wants to “get out from underneath the chokehold of Northwestern Oregon.”
“We’ve watched the shift take place in Oregon politics where the primary concern of the Legislature is Northwest Oregon. That’s where 78% of the state’s population is based. They tend to forget that every law that you pass in the state affects us out in the rural economies, too,” Mike McCarter, a lifetime Oregonian and member of the group, told Fox News.
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“Now you look and you say, ‘well, if you’re homeless, if you’re a hard drug user, if you’re a rioter, if you’re an illegal, come to Oregon – we’re a sanctuary state and you won’t get in trouble.’ And that’s not the way conservatives feel in Oregon,” he said.
The group’s goal is to collect signatures to bring the initiative to a state vote in 2021, when they hope 19 of Oregon’s southern and eastern counties will leave the state and become part of “Greater Idaho.”
Meanwhile, all restaurants and bars are closed except for takeout and public places such as gyms and museums are also temporarily closed. Social gatherings are limited to no more than six people from two households, both inside and outside.
State Sen. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls, decried Brown’s actions as an attack on Thanksgiving and personal freedoms.
“Now is the time to fight against Gov. Kate Brown’s government overreach and fear-mongering strategy to control this holiday and further destroy the fabric of our society,” Linthicum said in a statement emailed by the communications director for the Senate Republican caucus.