Is Illinois about to shrink? 45 counties have now approved measures to secede the state - all because of Chicago.
Nearly half of Illinois' 102 counties have now voted to secede from the state, and organizers behind the push say the problem is Chicago.
Twelve more southern counties approved nonbinding secession referendums on Nov. 3, bringing the total to 45 since 2020, FOX 32 Chicago reported. Approval ranged from 57 percent in McDonough County to 90 percent in one town in Adams County, Illinois desegregation director Lorette Newlin told Center Square.
Organizers want to start their own new state, Newlin told FOX 32, and being part of Indiana is not the goal.
Indiana makes its pitch anyway. House Speaker Todd Houston, R-Fishers, authored legislation to create the Indiana-Illinois Boundary Adjustment Commission, which Indiana Gov. Mike Brown, R-Republican, signed into law on May 1, 2025. Houston invited frustrated neighbors from Illinois to join “low-cost, low-tax Indiana. ".
Legally, the trail is steep. Creating a new state would require approval from the Illinois General Assembly and Congress, and the last time a state was carved out of another state was West Virginia, during the Civil War.
Seven counties already have contacts drawn up for 2028 referendum petitions, the Illinois Radio Network reported, and Newlin said organizers have heard from people in every county.
Oregon shows how these efforts can backfire. The Greater Idaho Movement has won ballot measures in 13 eastern Oregon counties since 2020, but Wallowa County voters rejected their required caucuses 61 percent to 39 percent in May 2026, and state lawmakers refused to take up the plan, OPB reported.