The rural villages pushed for divorce from the big cities, creating a new strong state

Rural voters in California have had it with the Democratic majority in Sacramento and want their communities to separate from the green urban areas that dominate state politics.

Rural Californians are tired of overregulation, high costs of living and a slew of policies coming out of the state’s Democratic-dominated Legislature, said Paul Preston, who founded New California State in hopes of secession. at home.

“We realized we had a dictatorship,” Preston told Fox News Digital, pointing to the imbalance between Democrats and Republicans in state government.

Preston, a former school administrator, described California as a “one-party” state that operates like a communist regime by passing laws that ignore the rural class.

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Under the proposed map, the New California State would include nearly all of California’s 58 counties, except for most of Los Angeles County and parts of Sacramento County, San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area. The map is only a suggestion and does not represent the final state boundaries, Preston said.

Proponents argue that splitting California in two would provide fairer and more responsive governance in areas outside the state’s major cities.

Preston noted that the proposed state would embarrass Mexico in an effort to combat illegal immigration. Among his many grievances is crime in California, which prompted voters to recall San Francisco 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 just one term as critics accused him of pandering to criminals.

Voters also overwhelmingly passed the tough-on-crime Proposition 36 last month despite efforts by state Democrats and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s last decade of criminal justice reform policies that critics say make criminals work.

“I don’t think anybody is going to tell California that we’re free from assault and free from domestic violence,” Preston said, referring to crime and the flow of illegal immigrants into the state.

Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office and state House Speaker Robert Rivas, a Democrat. The California Democratic Party said no one was available to comment on the matter.

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California State Capitol in Sacramento (Justin Sullivan / Justin Sullivan)

In recent years, California has come under fire for its high cost of living, its homelessness epidemic — despite spending billions to address the problem — and lax criminal justice and sanctuary state policies that opponents say contribute to crime.

James Gallagher, the Republican leader in the state Assembly, said he was not aware of the New California State effort but said, “I totally understand it.” However, Gallagher said the divide is not urban versus rural, any more than it is coastal versus inland communities.

“It often feels like there are two different states in California,” he told Fox News Digital. “That part of the middle of the country feels completely forgotten by Gavin Newsom and the majority of the Democrats. All the policies coming out of Sacramento don’t really weigh on them (Democratic lawmakers).”

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Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference on September 25. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

As an example, Gallagher cited an electric vehicle mandate led by California that requires all vehicles sold 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 tougher than the rest of the country is led to believe. He cited the Electoral College map from the November presidential election.

“The map that came out of the recent poll and how red the state of California is, it’s very representative of how I feel about the state of California,” he told Fox News Digital. “We are a red state and the big blue centers – Los Angeles and San Francisco – get all the representation because they have more people.”

Ellen Lee Zhou, who grew up in China and is a former mayor of San Francisco, said Democratic lawmakers and Newsom have prioritized illegal immigrants over legal residents and thrown out all common sense.

“What we’ve seen in the last 10 years is unbelievable with homeless people, drug dealers and prostitution,” Zhou told Fox News Digital. “I can’t explain what happened in the leadership.”

Although Vice President Kamala Harris won the popular vote across the country, with major support from coastal counties, Trump carried many counties, especially rural ones.

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A map showing the results of the 2024 presidential election in California. President-elect Trump won orange counties while Vice President Kamala Harris took blue counties, mostly in coastal and urban areas. (California Secretary of State)

After the November 5 election, Newsom visited the red states of California, where he told voters: “The message has been received.”

“I don’t care who you voted for. I care about the people. I care about the Trump supporters, I care about the RFK Jr., (Robert Kennedy Jr.) supporters, I care about the Tucker Carlson supporters, I care about the Charlie Kirk supporters, I care about the Ben Shapiro supporters, I care about all the people,” he said as he stood. .

“I care about the people who live here, in the Sierras, the people down in San Diego, where I was recently, or my backyard in Fair Oaks, California,” Newsom said.

Trump has attacked liberal cities, saying they are rife with crime, overtaxed and falling apart because of Democratic policies that focus on “woke” ideas 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 bifurcate, split or divide it into six smaller states, according to the California State Library.

Recently, Silicon Valley billionaire Tim Draper proposed a measure to divide California into six states, but the proposal failed to qualify for the 2016 ballot.

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In 2018, Draper succeeded in getting a measure to divide California into three states in the 2018 election after the “Cal 3” referendum received enough signatures from voters. However, the state Supreme Court decided on July 18, 2018, to remove the question from the ballot “because important questions have been raised about the validity of the proposal,” the library’s website said.

Other states have also supported some form of succession efforts in the past.

In 2020, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said unhappy rural counties in neighboring Virginia were welcome to join his state.

“If you’re really unhappy where you are, we stand with open arms to remove you from Virginia or wherever you may be,” Justice, a Republican, said at the time. “We stand firmly behind the Second Amendment, and we stand firmly for the unborn.”

The division between rural and urban areas has long been a part of politics. In November, Trump made gains in urban, suburban and rural areas, surprising many.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President-elect Trump (Getty/AP)

Despite his growing support from Californians, Newsom called the special session amid efforts to “Trump-proof” the Golden State from potential federal interference, but said he would work with the incoming administration.

“But if there is extremism, when people’s lives are threatened, when rights and freedoms are targeted, we will take action,” he said. “And that’s exactly what this special session is about — setting this state up for success, regardless of who’s in the White House.”

While Preston doesn’t expect to secede right away, considering the effort would require the Legislature’s blessing, he believes an opening will come.

“This is really an urban-rural debate,” he said. “We were received very well in Congress (when we visited Washington), even by the Democrats. It’s interesting that people who first saw what we were doing got on board.”

Hawaii was the last state to be admitted to the union in 1959. Efforts to obtain statehood by Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, have failed in recent years after not receiving enough support.

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“I get the conversation,” Gallagher said of the New California effort. “I think we might have to look at it. Maybe there should be two districts.”