The Wallowa County Clerk notified Greater Idaho volunteers yesterday that the Greater Idaho measure has clinched a win. It has 8 more Yes votes than No votes and there are only 7 incomplete ballots left to be cured by voters, according to a statement at the movement’s website, greateridaho.org.
Professional Portland political operatives broke the law to try to hide who they were and how much money they were spending, but they still lost. Trying to associate normal rural Oregonians like the Greater Idaho movement with scary extremist groups did not work. The election results in Wallowa County this year were 1% more favorable than in the same County in 2020 despite the movement being outspent by social justice warriors this time.
Wallowa County only has two percent of the population of eastern Oregon, and its beautiful mountain views draw an unusually large percentage of upper-income residents from the Willamette Valley, who may have been less supportive of joining Idaho.
But in eastern Oregon overall, Greater Idaho ballot measures have now averaged 60% in favor since the first election 6 election cycles ago. The group has won 12 out of the 12 counties that have voted on such a measure.
The movement believes that state leaders should want to let eastern Oregon join Idaho because it would benefit Oregon’s state budget, and because eastern Oregon’s state senators have announced that they will block votes in the Oregon Senate indefinitely until state leadership changes course. The group tweeted “Rural Oregon will keep electing more kamikaze Republicans who are willing to bring the Oregon Legislature to a halt every year if that’s what it takes to block unacceptable laws from being passed. If you don’t like that, then let us join Idaho, and w. OR can have a bluer blue state… Our state senators can trade places with state reps every 4 years and keep the Oregon Senate floor votes shut down forever. Contact Speaker Dan Rayfield to ask him to let our movement have an informational hearing to explain the sources of, and solutions to, the discontent in rural Oregon.”