It's sure not Portland. Eastern Oregon, home to one of the state's biggest rodeos and home to one of the biggest onion harvests in the country. Whatever it takes. Paul Skeen has been on this land for decades.

That's my dad.

He was a quarterback. Part of a long line of farmers in Oregon.

And these are my daughter's.

Three kids right here. We've been very blessed, raised our kids, have plenty to be thankful for. But I hate to give it all to a state that in most cases doesn't agree with anything that I agree with.

That's why these days he and his wife wish they were 800 feet further east in Idaho.

We get older and we find out there's the death tax, 16 % death tax. Only 13.

States have a death tax. Some people might hear.

This and go, Well, hey, then why not move?

And we probably will.

But why am I being forced to move? This is the big frustration. I built my home. I raised my family there. My grandkids come there. We built our life here in this home.

So instead of moving their farm, they want to move.

The border. Just make us.

Part of Idaho then. Most people in Oregon live west of the Cascades, clustered around more liberal cities like Portland, Eugene, and the capital of Salem, with Democrats dominating the state government. Out east, most of the land, but fewer people.

People in Eastern Oregon simply don't have the numbers to stop any policy coming from the west.

Side of the state. It's why Matt McCaw is helping to lead the greater Idaho push, an initiative to try to secede or split off parts of Eastern Oregon to join their more conservative neighbor. Twelve of Oregon's 36 counties have already voted to start formal discussions about joining Idaho, a state with looser gun laws and environmental regulations and tighter abortion restrictions.

We have this cultural divide. There is animosity. There is this tension and frustration that comes when one side tries to force their value system, their beliefs, their policy on the other. Let's find some solutions, and we can do that by matching people up with the government they want.

In the last few years, groups of people in Illinois, Colorado, and Southern California have explored separating from their states, which McCaw thinks could be a solid solution for a lot of folks.

This is a tool that we could use anywhere to get people government that makes.

Sense for them. But talking about secession is a lot easier than actually doing it. To make where I'm standing here in Oregon part of Idaho, which is just across the river, both state legislatures would have to approve it. And even if both sides of the Snake River agreed, it would still have to go to Congress for its green light.

The national conversation right now is just talking about the divide and not the way to come together.

Journalist Lea Sootilly covers the Pacific Northwest, watching plenty of national media parachute in to cover this secession initiative over the last year.

In the reporting that I've done, that shows that it really is in line with past secession movements that have happened in Oregon and the Northwest, which have been informed by racial politics, by identity.

Politics of the day. Some secession advocates acknowledge they may be railing at windmills here, but the publicity is part of the point to try to get the attention of people like Oregon governor Tina Kotech on a listening tour across the state.

We are thrilled to.

Have you all here today. In an interview with the local CBS station earlier this year, she made clear she wants to address frustrations and move forward as one state.

I want to reset this relationship with rural Oregonian so they feel heard that they are part of the decision making and making sure that their communities can.

Be successful. Back in Eastern Oregon at a county meeting. But your.

Website acts like we.

Voted to join Idaho. You're not being honest. Far from universal support to split off.

Our country is divided enough.

As it is. If you did that in the United States and tried to move borders all over, what a chaotic.

Thing you have there. Yet another shifting fault line in our divided states.

If all the population gets all the vote and has all the power, what does that say for the rest of us? Why even go vote?

It sounds like some of what this is, is that you feel powerless.

We are. We are totally powerless.

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