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To mark the 250th anniversary of this country, NPR is bringing you stories that illustrate American life, liberty and happiness for our series called America In Pursuit. Today's story is about a movement inspired by the Declaration of Independence. Over the last few years, a third of the counties in Illinois have voted to explore the idea of forming a 51st state. And the movement behind these ballot measures has its eye on the midterms. Here's reporter Connor Towne O'Neill.
CONNOR TOWNE O'NEILL, BYLINE: Loret Newlin has spent the last six years driving all across Illinois.
LORET NEWLIN: I've gone down to Saline County and Gallatin County and...
O'NEILL: She's logged all those miles trying to convince people to leave Illinois. That is, leave Illinois without moving.
NEWLIN: Probably the most persistent person in Illinois separations.
O'NEILL: The Illinois Separation Referendum wants to establish a 51st state from the counties outside Chicago's Cook County.
NEWLIN: Sometimes splitting is a good thing. You know, we wouldn't have America if some splitting hadn't been done 250 years ago.
O'NEILL: Why leave? Power - in Illinois, to be far from Chicago is to be far from power. Democrats, many from the state's one big city, hold a supermajority in the legislature, much to the dismay of downstate conservatives. So Newlin's task is to get a nonbinding question on the ballot asking, should we explore leaving Cook County to start a new state? Newlin likes the work. Well, the driving she could take or leave, but...
NEWLIN: I really like seeing my map get filled in.
O'NEILL: A map in front of us shows the counties where the referendum has appeared, 33 so far. And it has passed in every single one, often by over 70%.
NEWLIN: And we started from zero.
O'NEILL: In a nod to the Declaration of Independence, the movement has grievances - tyranically high taxes, unconstitutional gun laws, debt, the list goes on.
NEWLIN: Start with the driving one because you mentioned how much I drive.
O'NEILL: Illinois has one of the highest gas taxes in the country, which Newlin argues is an undue burden on rural areas.
NEWLIN: There is no business within 5 miles of my farm. That is one of the best examples of clueless.
KENNETH OWEN: There are real grievances.
O'NEILL: Kenneth Owen is a history professor at the University of Illinois Springfield who studies secession movements.
OWEN: There is a seriousness about this. I just think that there are much greater structural impediments ahead of them.
O'NEILL: Namely, state and federal approval - there's the paradox of New Illinois. To leave, they'd need the legislature to see things their way, which rarely happens, which is why they want to leave.
OWEN: There is, in theory, a constitutional mechanism.
O'NEILL: So you're saying there's a chance?
OWEN: This is what's interesting about secession. They all sound crazy right up until the time that they happened.
O'NEILL: Given those obstacles, what could actually be achieved here?
OWEN: It's maybe about reopening the social contract. Regular political channels haven't quite worked, and then when they threaten secession, it starts a conversation that moves things together.
LA SHAWN FORD: Rural Illinois and urban Illinois, we need to figure out how we can find common ground.
O'NEILL: La Shawn Ford is a state legislator from Chicago. He's been described as the only Democrat willing to discuss separation. Ford opposes the idea. To him, leaving an economic engine like Chicago would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face. But he thinks the dialogue is worth having.
FORD: It's not really north and south that's at war. It's the have and have-nots.
O'NEILL: Ford says the issues facing working people - food deserts, healthcare - are the same across Illinois. But is this a policy debate - a rural, mostly white group complaining about the big city? To what extent is this actually about race?
FORD: I don't think that it's overwhelming the issue, but I do think that people are aggravated about Black people. What you see televised, the crime in Chicago, that becomes a punching bag, and people start saying, see, all of our tax dollars are being wasted in Chicago.
O'NEILL: Everyone I spoke to in the state split movement denies any racial animus. Ford sees it more as an exercise in empathy.
FORD: Me being a Black man, even though this country has been good to me, it still could be frustrating being in a minority. And that's the way they feel. They feel like they're Black in the minority.
O'NEILL: Can the state come back together? An Illinois historian has compared it to a set of conjoined twins. How long can a state so divided remain standing? I asked Kenneth Owen.
OWEN: That is the sort of thing that can lead to rebellion and civil war. Most of the time that a rebellion breaks out, it's because there's a spark that lit the fire. The question is, how many sparks are there around?
O'NEILL: The odds of leaving the state through legislation appear astronomical. And yet, county by county, Loret Newlin persists.
NEWLIN: I tell you, I'm a farm girl. You plant anyway. You don't know what storms are going to come. You plant the seed anyway.
O'NEILL: The referendum will be on the ballot this November in six counties and counting. For NPR News, I'm Connor Towne O'Neill in Illinois. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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