• Thirty-three counties are exploring the possibility of forming a separate state, distancing themselves from Cook County.
• The Illinois Separation Movement is efforting to get more counties and municipalities to weigh in on separation.
• Indiana has crafted a bill setting up a commission to consider boundary adjustments with Illinois.

Two Springfield-area counties have passed referendums voicing a preference to explore the possibility of forming a separate Illinois by distancing themselves from Cook County.

Now a separatist movement wants even more voters to weigh in on that issue in 2026.

In all, 33 counties in downstate Illinois have voted affirmatively to explore formation of a new state.

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Illinois isn’t alone in that movement.

Counties in eastern Oregon have made noise about joining Idaho. Upstate New York could also separate, and conversations are being had in Minnesota, Colorado, Maryland and California.

The speaker of the House of Representatives in Indiana has appeared to roll out the welcome mat for dissatisfied Illinois counties, although Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker thought the move was "a stunt."

Here’s a look at the situation:

‘They’ve lost their voices’

Greene County, about 45 minutes southwest of Springfield, was among seven counties to approve a non-binding referendum in November. Other counties included Calhoun, Jersey, Iroquois, Clinton, Perry and Madison.

Northwest of the Springfield area, Brown County voters endorsed the referendum in 2022.

G.H. Merritt of New Illinois, a non-profit and educational group that helps create county committees to further the work, said the issue of separation is less an ideological one than a rural vs. urban divide.

"In numerous states, the rural people are underrepresented, and, in some cases, you could make the argument that they’ve lost their voices," said Merritt, who lives in Lake County. "We look at this as a civil rights issue."

Don’t call it ‘secession’

Merritt and Loret Newlin, director/coordinator of Illinois Separation Movement, are both aware of the connotation of "secession" regarding the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Newlin said her group, which efforts to get referendums on ballots, uses "separation" or “state split” because Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution "allows us to form a new state from within a state without withdrawing from the Union. It doesn’t require a Constitutional amendment."

Merritt said, "nobody looks at Maine and thinks, ‘what a bunch of secessionists.’ They went through this process because their needs weren’t being met."

Maine, once part of Massachusetts, came into the Union through the Missouri Compromise of 1820 as "a free state" keeping the balance when Missouri was admitted as "a slave state."

‘It’s not going to happen’

None of the 33 counties voted on anything other than having their county boards look at the possibility of separating and becoming its own state, "never about joining another state," said Newlin, who lives in Jasper County. Neither has her movement advocated for that, she added.

Eric Ivers, a member of the Jersey County Board, said his personal preference would be to see some of the counties go to Indiana, some to Missouri and possibly others to Kentucky, Iowa and Wisconsin.

"That would be entirely up to the counties and the various states they would like to join," Ivers said.

Creating a new state, Ivers said, "would be nearly impossible for political reasons." It would upset the long-term balance of the U.S. Senate because those senators would likely be Republican, and national Democrats, he said, "would work hard to keep the Illinois government from approving that."

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Ivers said there is "a political realignment happening in the U.S. (and)…it makes sense to also have a geographical realignment."

Any boundary change is a heavy lift, requiring the approval of the legislatures of the states involved, plus the U.S. Congress.

Merritt said at least people like Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, whose bill creates a so-called "Indiana-Illinois Boundary Adjustment Commission," "understands the dynamics of what is going on and why (some Illinoisans) are dissatisfied."

Pritzker seemed to stymie such talk.

"It’s not going to happen," Pritzker said recently. "I’ll just say Indiana is a low-wage state that doesn’t protect workers, a state that does not provide health care for people when they’re in need, and so I don’t think it’s attractive for anybody in Illinois where wages are higher, where the standard of living is higher, and we do provide health care for people in need."

Contact Steven Spearie: (217) 622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.