The California Republican leader in the state assembly is proposing what he calls a "two state solution," or the secession of the inland two-thirds of the state to become its own independent state, Politico reported on Tuesday.
The proposal by Assemblymember James Gallagher, which has essentially no chance of actually being realized, would create a state that stretches from Imperial County in the southeast corner of the state to Del Norte County in the Northwest, encompassing most of the Mojave Desert, Sierra Nevadas, and northern areas, giving most counties that voted for Vice President Kamala Harris last year to a small, thin state that would be the original California.
The announcement comes after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the legislature put forward a ballot measure that, if passed by voters in November, will temporarily suspend the congressional map passed by the state's independent redistricting commission and draw a partisan map that eliminates up to five Republican seats, in retaliation for a GOP redraw of the Texas map that does the same to Democrats.
“The people of inland California have been overlooked for too long,” said Gallagher in a statement. “It’s time for a two state solution.”
While this proposed state would have voted for President Donald Trump by nearly 8 points in 2024, it also would have voted narrowly for Joe Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
This is not the first time a proposal to divide up California has been proposed, as the nation's most populous state frequently sees debate over its size, governability, and adequate representation in Washington, D.C. of various regions and populations within it.
One of the most extreme proposals was an idea to split California into six states, put forward in 2014 by billionaire venture capital investor Tim Draper. The proposal ultimately failed to qualify for the ballot due to lack of signatures.