We use cookies on this website. By continuing to use this site without changing your cookie settings, you agree that you are happy to accept our privacy policy and for us to access our cookies on your device.
Transcript/ScriptUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: US – GREATER IDAHO MOVEMENT
HEADLINE: Oregon Counties Vote to Leave State and Join Idaho
TEASER: Nonbinding votes highlight divisions between rural and urban America
PUBLISHED AT: (8/14/23 & 10:52a)
BYLINE: Deborah Bloom
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Wallowa County, Oregon
VIDEOGRAPHER: Deborah Bloom
VIDEO EDITOR: Jason Godman
ASSIGNING EDITOR: Stearns
SCRIPT EDITORS: Stearns, Reifenrath, DJ (ok)
VIDEO SOURCE: All VOA
PLATFORMS: WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO _X_
TRT: 3:13
VID APPROVED BY: pcd
TYPE: TV,R PKG
EDITOR NOTES:))
((INTRO:))
[[wo-thirds of Americans say their country feels more divided than usual. Voting results show differences are especially pronounced between people living in rural areas and those in urban or suburban areas. In the Pacific Northwest, some rural voters are pushing to leave their state. For VOA, Deborah Bloom reports on the Greater Idaho movement.]]
((NARRATOR))
In rural Oregon, 12 counties have voted to leave the state and begin talks on joining the neighboring state of Idaho. Wallowa County is the most recent to back that move. Bison rancher Bob Stangel’s family has lived here for generations.
((Bob Stangel, Bison Rancher))
“Right now in the United States, there's a lot of movement for minority rights and privileges and tolerance. ... And I think that there's a large minority that has been left out of that discussion, and that is the conservatives.”
((NARRATOR))
Stangel voted to redraw Oregon’s eastern border to move large rural parts of the state into Idaho, where the governor and legislative majorities are Republican. In Oregon, Democrats hold those powers.
((Bob Stangel, Bison Rancher))
“The liberals or Democrats, for the most part, are in political control, and have been for maybe the last 40 years. And the conservatives resent that of being told continually how to live their lives.”
((NARRATOR))
The Greater Idaho movement is a long shot. Redrawing U.S. state borders requires approvals from both states’ legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Conservative Oregonians say the non-binding votes in these central and eastern counties are as much about sending a message to lawmakers in the state capital.
Retiree Elnora Cameron, also a Wallowa Country resident, voted to stay in Oregon but says she understands the frustrations fueling secessionism.
((Elnora Cameron, Wallowa County Resident))
“I live here. I do not want to live in Idaho under their laws, rules and regulations. My only silver lining about this is that maybe we’ll get the conversation that needs to happen between the west side and the east side going somehow, because this is not happening for no reason.”
((NARRATOR))
In the last U.S. presidential election, Republican candidate Donald Trump swept the eastern Oregon counties. But President Joe Biden won the state because most of its population lives in urban and suburban districts in western Oregon, where residents vote mostly Democratic. It’s a distinction between urban and rural America that in Oregon has Republicans feeling they no longer have a voice, says political science professor Joe Lowndes.
((Joe Lowndes, University of Oregon Political Science Professor))
“This movement really reflects a polarization politically that's happened in the state where the Republican Party has pushed far to the right of where it had been just a couple of decades ago. They say they have much more in common with Idaho than they have with western Oregon, which they see as entirely liberal focus on urban issues.”
((NARRATOR))
Republican lawmakers walked out of the state legislature on May 3 in protest of a bill to expand access to abortion and health care for transgender people. Their boycott blocked the passage of any bills for six weeks.
Meanwhile, the Greater Idaho movement hopes to expand support in central and eastern Oregon counties. Its campaign depends on mobilizing conservatives like Stangel to express their discontent at the ballot box and vote for the improbable.
((Deborah Bloom for VOA News, Wallowa County, Oregon))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
