Rural residents in Illinois and Oregon are seeking to break away from their respective states and potentially join neighboring states to better represent their interests. In Illinois, residents are pushing to separate from Cook County, which they feel dominates state politics, while in Oregon, rural residents are looking to join Idaho due to ideological differences with the more liberal western part of the state.
While there has been some local momentum for these movements, there are major obstacles to reconfiguring state lines within the U.S. The states relinquishing counties would have to agree to the changes, and Congress would need to approve them. State boundaries have only changed about 50 times in U.S. history, most of them minor adjustments.
In Indiana, legislation has been advanced to welcome Illinois counties into the state, while Idaho has also shown interest in absorbing counties from Oregon. However, it remains unlikely that these changes will come to fruition due to political realities and legal challenges.
While state boundary changes are rare, some residents and politicians are hopeful that the current political environment will make such changes more feasible. Despite the challenges, proponents of these movements argue that they have more in common with neighboring states than with their own urban centers. The push for realignment reflects broader political divisions within their respective states and a desire for greater representation in government.
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