The growing movement to secede from Illinois and become the 51st state

250 years ago this weekend the Declaration of Independence was signed.

“It marked the beginning of American democracy.”

This year, MPR has been looking at how things have gone. In the series, America and pursuit, stories from 250 years of life, liberty, and happiness. Americans tend to think about the Declaration of Independence as a founding document, the start of something, the text that brought the country together. But if you read it closely, you realize it's also a breakup text.

A good portion of the Declaration of Independence is saying it's not you, it's me. This is just not going to work, we don't work well together, you know. So in addition to being a document declaring freedom, the Declaration of Independence is also a document of succession. Today we have a story about a group of people who see themselves as following in a fundamentally American

tradition. A group of people who are claiming their right to declare their independence from a state they feel no longer represents them. We, the people of the counties of New Illinois, solemnly publish and declare that these counties are and have right ought to be a free and independent state. When we come back, a modern-day succession is movement in the state of Illinois,

stay with us. 250 years ago, the nation's founders considered a free press a critical

protection for we the people. Today, the NPR network proudly upholds your first amendment rights with reporting accountable only to you. It's something we protect together. Power a truly independent press support the NPR network at plus.npr.org. For decades, Chicago has dominated Illinois politics, now rule residents say they're fed up. There comes a time of reckoning and we're getting very close. On the Sunday story,

why succession is brewing in the land of Lincoln, this is now to the Sunday story from the first podcast on the NPR app. Each story you hear on planet money starts with a question. What happens if we refund tariffs? Why are grocery so expensive? And NPR, we stand for your right to be curious because the forces shaping our world can be hard to see. Follow NPR's planet money wherever you get your podcast

and start seeing how the economy really works. We're back with a Sunday story. I'm joined by reporter Connor Town O'Neill. He spent months following a group of people who wants to split up Illinois and create a 51st state. Connor, hi, welcome to the podcast. Hey Adisha, great to be here.

So Connor, I just want to get this straight. You've been talking to people who basically want to

succeed from their own state. Yeah, I've been talking to people in the new Illinois movement,

“new Illinois, that's what they'd call this new state. And what they want is for all the counties in”

Illinois except Cook County, that's where Chicago is, to succeed and become their own state. The 51st state. So basically, they just want to ditch Chicago. Why? Power. You know, Illinois politics, to be far from Chicago, is to be far from power. Chicago's a big city, the third most populous in the country, the rest of Illinois, rural, far less populated. What that means is they don't have the same voting power as the Chicago area in the state legislature.

Right now, because Chicago is a blue liberal area, Democrats have a veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature, to the dismay of the people in rural, down state, Illinois, who are mainly conservative. Okay, so people from rural Illinois have created this group, new Illinois, with the goal of succeeding from present-day Illinois and starting a new state.

“That's a pretty ambitious goal. Is there even a legal pathway to do this?”

There is. And it's in the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution lays out an article four, what has to happen in order to admit a new state to the Republic? There are two big things. The approval of Congress and the approval of the state's legislature. So, so that's a pretty high bar. I mean, especially since the reason the new Illinois people started their movement is that they don't like how their state legislature makes decisions,

and it seems unlikely that the current state legislature is going to let a whole lot of the state just up and leave. Right, exactly. And there's no shortage of irony that this is all happening

start a new country like the Confederacy did in the Civil War. They see themselves as a very proud, very patriotic movement, taking inspiration from the founding fathers. They want to stay in America, just not in the same state as Chicago. And leaders of New Illinois say they no longer

“consent to be governed in this way, the state run by the big city. The only way they see to”

address their grievances is to leave. So, so basically they're making their argument taxation

without representation. That's right. Are you sure back in October of 2020, GH Merit, she's a chairman of New Illinois, she formalized her group's intentions. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are in doubt, on the steps of a courthouse in Western Illinois. She recited the declaration of independence. Providence. The original one. We mutually pledge to each other. Our lives, our fortunes,

and our sacred honor. And then, she recited the new one. We the people of the counties of New Illinois. The one that declares independence from Illinois. solemnly publish and declare that these

counties are and have right ought to be a free and independent state. So tell me more about GH Merit.

“Like, so she's the one who got this started. That's right. Yeah, she says she first got the idea to”

start a new state back in 2018. She lives in Northern Illinois up by a lake near the Wisconsin border. And she says she was frustrated by the state's high taxes. She felt like all that power in Chicago didn't really translate into many opportunities elsewhere. She and her husband considered moving away. But I live in a house that my dad built. And one day it just kind of hit me like an epiphany that I don't want to sell my house. It means too much to me. And yet, I had sense almost of being

propelled out of the state because our state is so corrupt and the taxes are so high. And I just thought, why should I have to be the one to move? Thus, the tagline of the organization, leave Illinois without moving. And, you know, the idea caught on turns out lots of people shared

her frustrations. So, if you'll indulge in me a little revolutionary history. Well, I mean,

“you know, I think there's no better day than today or this time. I think you're by thinking”

of it. It's not everyone's mind. So, you know, the original declaration it included grievances against the king. And they put those grievances in the document itself, the breakup text. And New Illinois has a list of grievances too. But merit told me they had to break precedent there. We didn't put grievances in our declaration because it would have been as long as an psychopathia. So, the grievances, they published them separately. They include tyrannically high taxes,

unconstitutional gun laws, gerrymandering, debt, immigration enforcement, or lack thereof, the list goes on. So, there are a lot of policies and laws that they don't like, but they do not have the votes to stop. Exactly. Yeah. But, at the same time, critics of New Illinois point out that the folks downstate actually benefit from Chicago's tax dollars. Chicago is a big economic engine for the state. There's this study from a few years ago showing just how Chicago helps rural counties.

Some counties, people will get back something like $2 in change in state services for every dollar they pay in tax. On the other hand, people in Cook County, they get like 90 cents back for every dollar tax. So, yeah, in that light, it's good to have Chicago in the state. Supporters of splitting up the state, they push back on that, though. Given their own way, which, I guess I mean, given their own state, they say they'll create their own economic engines.

They pledge to create a more business-friendly environment. Fewer regulations, lower taxes, they want to revitalize the coal industry. Plus, they see all these economic liabilities brought about by Chicago Democrats. They point to the state's debt and underfunded pension system. They claim the state's being over taxed. These are all things they want to get away from. So, instead of receiving the Chicago tax dollars, they want to generate, you know, the revenue

themselves by like lowering taxes, bringing in new companies and things of that nature. They believe like many conservatives that that will be better for them. That's right. That's the game plan. So, I mean, it sounds like they have these plans and they have this vision, but it seems like a bit performative because of that paradox that we talked about. You know, they're going to read the Declaration of Independence on the courthouse is dramatic,

but what's it doing? Totally. Totally. And you aren't alone in thinking it performative. I reached out to Governor JB Pritzker for comment about New Illinois. He called it a stunt. Except the thing is, after all my reporting, it doesn't seem like a stunt to me. New Illinois

Okay, so to understand that, you've got to meet Lorette Newland.

“And probably the most persistent person in Illinois separation, so I guess that kind of makes me”

the leader. So, Newland is very much a New Illinois sessionist, but her focus on the mechanics of making it happen. So, she has her own group that works in tandem with New Illinois. It's called the Illinois Separation Referendum. So, the separation referendum. So, they want voters to weigh in on this question of leaving at have voters waiting? Yes. Part of the reason that New Illinois has had so much traction is in part because they've actually been able to get the question of

session onto the ballot. Like, this is a thing that people are voting on on election days. So, how does that work? So, it's an advisory question. It's non-binding, but it's been on the ballot

in 33 counties so far. That's a third of the counties in the state. And the response has been

resounding in favor of the idea. Newland showed me a map of the referendum results so far. Let's look at that map. So, it is striking. I mean, you look at basically the southern half of the state. Pretty well colored in there. We can get solid from Edgar all the way to Christian County if we can get Douglas and Coles both on there. And those numbers, I will say, are striking, Fay at County, 79% Clay County, 80% Edgar County, 83%. Those are big numbers.

And we started from C-Row. So, they are 33 for 33. Like, she's gotten this referendum on the ballot in 33 counties and each time they've gotten a yes. A big yes. And it's easy for some to dismiss

say, "Multry County," for voting for separation. There's a joke about how few stoplates there

“are in that county. How many are there? Two, I think. But yeah, it's small. But then there's Madison”

County, which is a pretty big county. It's about 250,000 people. It's part of the St. Louis Metro area. And they voted to leave too. Newland told me after they had Madison County referendum, more people started taking them seriously. And she's not stopping at 33, right? Like, she's going to want to go further. The midterm elections are coming up in November. She is. That's right. So, you can get the referendum on the ballot in one of two ways. Either via petition or by

lobbying the county board. Newland's done both. She's petitioned everywhere. Courthouse squares, parking lots, even the junkyard. But she prefers going through a county board. Just this morning, I heard from Henderson County. They just voted six to two in favor of putting it on the ballot. We had three counties done in Southern Illinois, Gallatin, Selene, and Hamilton, that their boards all voted unanimously. Okay. So, so these referendum results are proof of

concept. Like, they are showing that there are people who do want this. It seems like more and more people are going to get a chance to at least show their support for this on the ballot. Yeah. So, an answer to your original question. Yes, they are serious. And yes, they are making progress. We'll be right back. Every week on our series, if you can keep it, we tackle the biggest political stories

and why they matter for our democracy. Join me, Jen White Mondays on the one-eight podcast from W.A.M.U. and N.P.L. Are you tired of looking for a comfort show or film and realize it's moved to yet another streaming service or having a buy more storage for your $1,000 smartphone? Is it even possible to truly own anything anymore? On it's been a minute, we dig into how folks online are taking back their

agency in the media. We all consume. Listen to it's been a minute on the N.P.R. app or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back with the Sunday story. So, we have this session movement in Illinois called New Illinois and they have a ton of support in these rural counties. Kind of, I'm curious how the people in this movement are actually gaining all this support. How are they getting the

“word out and getting people on their side? Through a whole lot of lobbying, are you sure?”

Larry Mulch, he's the vice chairman of New Illinois. A few months back, I drove out to Hancock County in Western Illinois to interview him. I want to save Illinois and it's worth saving. Mulch and I talked at the Hancock County courthouse where Mulch holds monthly meetings for his New Illinois committee. So, inside the courthouse, so they're working on building a new state inside a government building for the old state. They're actually holding these meetings in a courthouse

While the ballot referendum demonstrates the movement support among voters,

I was also starting to see the traction they have higher up. Larry Mulch is an elected official. He's a township supervisor and the former sheriff of Hancock County is in the group.

“That's how they were able to use the courthouse in the first place. And Mulch explained to me,”

that's why they're organizing on this grassroots county by county basis. That's the purpose is to go out and find a core group within that county that is willing to do whatever's necessary. You build a base of support among your neighbors, your township supervisors, your sheriff, then you start to lobby the county board, the state senators. And they're speaking from a place that is so resonant to so many of their neighbors. Lots of people have spoken with, talk about

downstate Illinois. It's fundamentally different from Chicago. Two a person, everyone I spoke with, reference the history of downstate Illinois, settled in the 19th century, largely by Kentucky and Tennessee farmers. Well, early on, Chicago had more of a connection to shipping and the great lakes. And then of course, became this big metropolis. As they see it, the state is cleaved together, two places with two paths, two presence, two ways of life. We are a different people.

And we've got a different mindset. And so when you feel so connected to a place, but you don't see your priorities, your values, your worldview reflected and how that places run,

there's a distress, but also a motivation. That sense of powerlessness is always the driving force.

So Aisha, I talked to an expert on succession movements, Dr. Kenneth Owen. He's a history professor

“at the University of Illinois Springfield. He's been following New Illinois for years. I think”

there's something about the idea of succession that appeals to the American mindset. I think it's part of the American founding myth, having our own government is a way that they can reclaim some of that power that they feel they don't have. So Owen says there are two hallmarks of these movements. One, a sense of cultural identity distinct from the place you're succeeding from, and two clear political stakes, a sense of what can be gained by leaving. Owen sees both

at work in New Illinois. They are building the sort of political infrastructure that you would expect to need. I just think that there are much greater structural impediments ahead of them. And those impediments, I imagine, are the constitutional requirements for starting a new state. That's right. That's right. So given all of that, what are the chances of this actually happening?

“Has something like this ever happened before in the U.S.? So New Illinois likes to point to West”

Virginia as precedent, but can't if Owen doesn't really think that applies. West Virginia succeeded from Virginia because Virginia had succeeded from the United States. The context of the Civil War is so distinct. It just wouldn't set a precedent. People also point to Maine leaving Massachusetts. That's part of the Missouri compromise of 1820. This agreement to let one slave holding state Missouri into the Union along with one free state. Maine, to maintain this

precarious balance in the lead up to the Civil War. So again, Owen says the context is just totally

distinct. So there is in theory a constitutional mechanism. It has never been used to create a new

state on this scale. So you're saying there's a chance. This is what's interesting about succession. They all sound crazy right up until the time that they happened. Okay, it's a long shot. And even though some people are dismissing it as a stunt, you've been digging in and the people who are organizing this are serious and they're taking serious steps. So something is happening here, but it seems like it's about to run straight into a wall that is the state legislature.

So what happens if this doesn't work? So I ask Kenneth Owen about this. He says there's a best case scenario in which the tension can actually prove productive for the state. It's maybe about reopening the social contract. So in a lot of the cases that I've studied, people are really unhappy about a particular issue. Regular political channels haven't quite worked. And then when they threaten succession, it gets lots of attention and it stops the conversation that moves things

together. So I mean that the threat of succession could be looked at as kind of like a check engine light. Exactly. And as a blinking light, it's already working. Take the Sean Ford. He's a Democrat from Chicago and the state legislature who takes the concerns of New Illinois seriously. Rule Illinois and Urban Illinois, we need to figure out how we could find common ground. And Ford actually spoke at a New Illinois Conference back in 2023. He's described by the group

as the only Democrat in the legislature willing to have the conversation about splitting the state.

Someone who can dialogue. But what is his stance on the issue? Oh, he's against it.

And said so at the New Illinois Conference, he thinks those two extra dollars of funding

“that the rural counties are getting from Chicago provide crucial services infrastructure.”

He thinks leaving would be cutting off your nose despite your face. And he puts the issue in more populous terms. It's not really north and south that at war is the have and have nice. Ford says the issues facing working people, food deserts, health care, they're the same across Illinois. But his solution, a progressive tax on the wealthy, it's a non-starter for conservatives downstate who are allergic to taxation. So the

impact holds. Well, you know, the policy debate here, taxes, regulation guns,

it is extremely familiar because we hear it over and over again and it just seems intractable. But I also have to ask Connor, this rule, mostly white group is complaining about the big city. To what extent is this about race? This was a big question for me too. Everyone I asked in the movement, they denied any kind of racial animus behind their work. But the Sean Ford had an interesting take on the question. I don't think that it's overwhelming the issue,

but I do think that people are aggravated about black people. But I mean, like, sometimes that becomes a punching bag and people start saying, see, all of our tax dollars are being wasted

in Chicago. So he doesn't see it as the factor, but a potential aggravating factor.

Does Ford see race shaping the issue in other ways? He does. Me being a black man, even though this country's been good to me, it still could be frustrating, being in minority. And that's the way they feel. They know what it feels like to be in a minority

“and not be able to have the suede that they would like. Do you have any advice on it, given that?”

Yeah, I think that my advice to them is let's work together, let's make Illinois stronger. But how does that stronger together? We're one Illinois message play with the Illinois movement. About as well as you'd expect. And I don't think many people in the state are under any illusions about unity. And Illinois historian has compared the state to a set of conjoined twins. The diagnosis from a long time journalist here was schizophrenia.

Given that the odds are against the session actually passing legislatively, what other outcomes might there be? In one scenario, the state just carries the tension. In another scenario, the tension continues to ratchet up. Here's how canofoan season.

“Do the circumstances exist for political violence to break out in the United States at the moment?”

Is it likely? I'm not sure that political violence is ever likely or unlikely when those circumstances exist, most of the time that the rebellion breaks out. It's because there's a spark that lit the fire. The question is how many sparks are there around? Well, clearly it sounds like you've been seeing a whole lot of sparks. Yeah, so are you sure? Let me take you one last place over to Highland, Illinois. This same Patrick's day, I went to meet Virgil Strader.

Strader is in New Illinois's transitional legislature, helping to build the political infrastructure for the state, drafting a constitution, writing laws. In his day job, he's an auctioneer. He was hosting a benefit auction for the local quarterback, so over a plate of corned beef and cabbage, I chatted with the people at my table. That's right. Afterward, I told Virgil about our conversation. So I told him a little bit about the story that I was working on. They hadn't heard

of New Illinois. And yet, everyone at the table, you know, they're talking about the gas tax. They're talking about the tax that finances the trains in Chicago. It is a thing that people are kind of fluent in, even if they're not necessarily involved in the movement. Well, how can you not be fluent in it if you're subject to it? We have taxation without representation. Yeah, taxation without representation. They're aligning themselves with the American Revolution.

Exactly. There's no way to fix it. Politically, there comes a time of reckoning and we're getting very close. I wonder for you, is there a point where you'd think like this isn't working or work? Yeah. If you don't work, could I be gone? Strader says, if they neither get the approval

get the approval of the online legislators, then I would say that there would be a better than

a 50% chance that we would have a battle. Now, a bill to split the state was introduced during the most recent legislative session in Illinois, but it didn't make it out of committee. The legislator who introduced that bill, Brad Halbrook, he told me the plan is to introduce the bill again in the next session. When I asked him about the possibility of violence, he pointed to the declaration of independence. The Founding Fathers weren't worried about the law, he said. They were worried about the

political will to do something different. That's where we're at in Illinois, he said. The question

for Halbrook was, what are you prepared to do? Well, and when he says, "What are you prepared to do?"

Does that essentially mean, like, are you willing to take up arms? That's the question on Virgil Strader's mind. He tells me there's no militia associated with New Illinois, but he does know people with heavy arsenal who would be willing to join a secessionist fight. We may surround the capital building in Springfield. I wouldn't rule that out. There's no talk of doing that, but I wouldn't rule it out. Strader imagines fantasizes, maybe, a scenario in which an armed group

which surround the capital and demand to form a new state forcing the split without having to fire a

“shot. You see only two options on the table separating or civil war. Could it really come to that?”

I hope not, but it has in the past. It's just how much bullshit you're going to put up with

and we've had enough. That's a sobering thought. It is. It is. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. War is not something to brag about. War is not something to be proud of. It's man's in humanity to man. But by the same token, if you push hard enough and long enough, at some point in time, he's like whipping the dog in the corner for long. He's going to come out and he's going to get you. The chairman of New Illinois, GH Merritt, she disavowed any talk of war. She said, leaving

Chicago was more like leaving a bad marriage to avoid killing your partner. And Lorette Newlin, of Illinois separation, she stressed that she was putting the advisory question on the ballot instead of waging war. As if the referendum acted almost as a pressure release valve for this urban rural tension in the state. This year, Newlin has persuaded eight more county boards to include the separation referendum on the ballot and the upcoming midterm

elections. She continues to lobby in more counties. But in doing so, does she risk spreading sparks to more of the state? I pushed her on it. You have got your finger on the pulse of something

“here. And I'm wondering if it doesn't work. What happens to that energy?”

You know, that's not something I spend any time thinking about. Why not? I tell you, I'm a farm girl. You plant anyway. You don't know what storms are going to come. You don't know what the temperature's going to be. You don't, you don't know what the price is going to be. You plant the seed any way. Plant the seed anyway. I guess the question is what's going to grow. Totally. Thank you, Connor, for bringing us all of this great reporting. Thanks, Aisha.

Good to be with you. That was Connor Town O'Neal reporting from Illinois. This episode of the Sunday story was a co-production with Beaded Door. It was produced by Sharon Maschihi with help from Ben Rapaport and edited by Johnny Schmidt. Fact checking by Will Chase and Engineering by Jimmy Keely, the rest of the Sunday story team includes Andrew Mombo and Leanna Simstrom. I ring the Gucci as our executive producer, especially thanks to Chip Brantley and Illinois Public Media.

“I'm Aisha Roscoe and up first is back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week”

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