Southern Calif. County to Consider Seceding from State

Facts

• San Bernardino County, California's fifth-largest county with 2.2M people, has approved an advisory ballot proposal allowing local officials to inquire into the possibility of seceding from the state.
• As this would be an attempt to form a new state — the first since Hawaii in 1959 — the ballot measure directed officials to look into the legalities of such a move. If pursued, secession would need to be approved by both the state legislature and Congress.
• Though secession is likely to be a long shot, the vote is significant given the racial and ethnic diversity of the county and points to division as residents face growing homelessness, rising crime and housing prices, and some of the highest taxes in the country. As of 2019, its unemployment rate was 9.5%, and its poverty rate was 12.2%.
• The city of San Bernardino, with a population of roughly 220k, is the third largest metro area behind Los Angeles and San Francisco. Its other communities include suburbs, mountain towns, and deserts.
• The county's Democrat voters also outweigh Republicans by 12%, though Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom lost in the county by five points in November's election. Newsom's state is also shrinking in population, with California set to lose a congressional seat next year.
• Over the course of its 172-year history, California has undergone more than 220 failed attempts to divide the state into multiple smaller ones, including efforts to carve out a new "State of Jefferson" from nearly two dozen Northern California counties.

Sources: Week, FOX News, Abc, PBS NewsHour, and Al Jazeera.

Narratives

• Republican narrative, as provided by USSA. Though state divorce may sound extreme, the right to consider it is fundamental to American principles. Anyone who's traveled to upstate New York, western Maryland, or the rural parts of any state knows how disparate these regions are from the liberal urban hubs that control their legislatures. San Bernardino is no different. Not only should it secede, but so should many other regions if we hope to have a fair national electorate.
• Democratic narrative, as provided by LA Times. The idea of dividing California into multiple states, often proposed by aggrieved Republicans, is nothing new, and neither is its abysmal chance of succeeding. The irony is further displayed in that if another state were to be created, it would lead to a larger federal budget — the opposite of what Republicans argue for day in and day out.