Rural towns push to divorce from big cities, form new conservative state
New move to secede from blue parts of California is being pushed by group hoping to created a new state away from the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
Rural voters in California have had it with the Democratic majority in Sacramento and are pushing for their communities to divorce the blue urban areas that dominate state politics.
Conservative residents in California's rural regions are tired of over-regulation, the high cost of living and the myriad of policies coming out of the Democratic-dominated state Legislature, said Paul Preston, who founded New California State in hopes of splintering off from its current home.
"We recognized that we were in a tyranny," Preston told Fox News Digital, citing the disparity between Democrats and Republicans in state government.
Preston, a former school administrator, described California as a "one-party" state that operates similar to a communist regime by passing laws that disregard the rural class.
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Under the proposed map, New California State would comprise nearly all of California's 58 counties, except most of Los Angeles County and parts of Sacramento County, San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area. The map is purely a proposal and doesn't represent the final state borders, Preston said.
Supporters contend breaking California in two would provide fairer and more responsive governance for areas outside the state's major cities.
Preston noted that the proposed state would border Mexico in an effort to combat illegal immigration. Among his many grievances are California's crime woes, which prompted voters to recall San Francisco's district attorney in 2022 and Alameda County DA Pamela Price in November. In Los Angeles County, voters ousted DA George Gascon on Nov. 5 after only one term as critics blamed him for being too lenient on criminals.
Voters also strongly passed tough-on-crime Proposition 36 last month despite efforts by state Democrats and Gov. Gavin Newsom to preserve a decade of criminal justice reform policies that critics say enabled criminals.
"I don't think anybody's going to tell California that we are free from invasion and we're free from domestic violence," Preston said, citing crime and the flow of illegal migrants into the state.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Newsom's office and state Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Democrat. The California Democratic Party said no one was available to comment on the matter.
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In recent years, California has been criticized for its high cost of living, its homelessness epidemic – despite spending billions to address the problem – and lenient criminal justice and sanctuary state polices that opponents have said contribute to crime.
James Gallagher, the Republican leader in the state Assembly, said he didn't know about the New California State effort specifically but said, "I totally understand it." However, Gallagher said the divide isn't necessarily urban versus rural, as much as it is coastal versus the inland communities.
"It often feels like there are two separate states in California," he told Fox News Digital. "That inland portion feels completely forgotten by Gavin Newsom and the supermajority Democrats. All the policies that come out of Sacramento don't really burden them (Democratic lawmakers)."
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As an example, Gallagher cited California-led electric vehicle mandates that require all new vehicle sales in the state to be zero-emission models by 2035, which he said would hurt many rural residents.
Tina Hessong, 55, who lives in Yuba City, a few miles north of Sacramento, said California is actually more conservative than what the rest of the country is led to believe. She cited the Electoral College map from November's presidential election.
"The map that has come out of the recent vote and how red the state of California truly is, is more representative of the way that I feel the reality of the state of California is," she told Fox News Digital. "We are a red state and the big blue centers –Los Angeles and San Francisco – they get all the representation because they have the bigger population."
Ellen Lee Zhou, who grew up in China and has run for mayor of San Francisco, said Democratic lawmakers and Newsom had prioritized illegal immigrants over legal residents and have abandoned all common sense.
"What we've seen in the last 10 years is unbelievable with the homeless, open drug dealing and prostitution," Zhou told Fox News Digital. "I just can't explain what happened to the leadership."
Despite Vice President Kamala Harris winning the statewide popular vote, with heavy support from coastal regions, Trump took most of the counties, mainly in the rural areas.
Following the Nov. 5 election, Newsom visited California's red counties, where he told voters: "Message received."
"I don’t care who you voted for. I care about people. I care about Trump supporters, I care about RFK Jr., (Robert Kennedy Jr.) supporters, I care about Tucker Carlson supporters, I care about Charlie Kirk supporters, I care about Ben Shapiro supporters, I care about all people," he said during one of his stops.
"I care about the people living here, in the Sierras, folks down in San Diego, where I just was, or my backyard in Fair Oaks, California," Newsom added.
Trump has assailed liberal cities, saying they are rife with crime, overtaxed and falling apart because of Democratic policies focused on "woke" ideology instead of improving the quality of life for residents.
California has a long history of attempts to break itself into smaller pieces. Since 1850, when it became the 31st state admitted to the union, there have been more than 220 attempts to bisect, trisect or dissect it into six smaller states, according to the California State Library.
More recently, billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper proposed an initiative to split California into six states, but the proposal failed to qualify for the 2016 ballot.
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In 2018, Draper was successful in getting a measure to break California into three states on the 2018 ballot after the "Cal 3" referendum garnered enough signatures from voters. However, the state Supreme Court decided on July 18, 2018, to remove the question from the ballot "because significant questions have been raised regarding the proposition's validity," the library's website states.
Other states have also supported some type of succession effort in the past.
In 2020, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said unhappy rural counties in neighboring Virginia were more than welcome to join his state.
"If you're not truly happy where you are, we stand with open arms to take you from Virginia or anywhere where you may be," Justice, a Republican, said at the time. "We stand strongly behind the Second Amendment, and we stand strongly for the unborn."
The rural-urban divide has long been part of politics. In November, Trump made some gains in urban, suburban and rural areas, surprising many.
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Despite his increased support among Californians, Newsom has convened a special session amid efforts to "Trump-proof" the Golden State from potential federal interference, but said he would work with the incoming administration.
"But when there is overreach, when lives are threatened, when rights and freedoms are targeted, we will take action," he said. "And that is exactly what this special session is about – setting this state up for success, regardless of who is in the White House."
While Preston doesn't anticipate a separation right away, considering the effort would need the blessing of the Legislature, he believes an opening will come.
"This is really an urban versus rural debate," he said. "We've been received very well in Congress (during visits to Washington), even by Democrats. It's interesting that people who are starting to see what we're doing are on board."
Hawaii was the last state admitted to the union in 1959. Efforts to attain statehood by Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have fallen short in recent years after not having garnered enough support.
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"I get the discussion," Gallagher said of the New California effort. "I think we might need to look into it. Maybe there should be two states."
