SEATTLE — Almost 1 in 4 Washingtonians — 24%, to be precise — say they’d support the Evergreen State breaking ties with the rest of the nation, according to a recent poll by YouGov.
That puts Washington only slightly above the national average for secessionist attitudes — 23% — but behind eight other states, notably Alaska, Texas and California, whose share of pro-exit residents topped the February survey at 36%, 31% and 29%, respectively.
It also makes Washington more pro-secession than neighboring Oregon, which came in at just 17%, and Idaho, which came in at 20%.
Talk of secession has been a near-constant theme in American politics from day one.
But the topic has been more in the news recently as the country grapples with political polarization, rising urban-rural tensions and rifts between states such as Texas and the federal government on issues like immigration and border security.
Just last month, Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley had to walk back comments suggesting that Texas could leave the union. “If that whole state says we don’t want to be part of America anymore, I mean, that’s their decision to make,” she said.
Although many legal scholars believe states do not have the right to secede, 25% of Washingtonians think secession is legally permitted. That’s slightly below the national average of 26% and way behind Alaska, where 42% think secession is legal.
The YouGov survey, which was conducted online with 35,307 U.S. adults, didn’t ask respondents why they favored secession.
But it found that our hankering to exit the union varies by political leaning: 31% of Republicans in Washington favored secession versus 21% of Democrats.
Also, while just 24% of Washingtonians favor secession, 29% said they wanted “another state to secede.” (The survey doesn’t specify which other state Washingtonians want gone.)
Washington’s middling rankings may surprise some residents, given the state’s long and colorful history of secessionist impulses.
In 1896, barely seven years after statehood, some Eastern Washington residents were already looking to secede from their western counterparts.
Eleven years later, groups in parts of Washington, Oregon and Idaho declared their intent to form a more perfect, if smaller, union, dubbed Lincoln.
More recent efforts include separate 1990s-era campaigns to create Cedar County from east King County and Freedom County from parts of Snohomish County.
There was also a 2012 petition by Washington residents asking the White House to “Peacefully grant the State of Washington to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government.”
In 2016, three Eastern Washington lawmakers asked then-President Donald Trump and Congress to create “ a separate and independent state,” to be known as Liberty, from 20 Eastern Washington counties. They later introduced a bill in the state legislature.
That same year saw discussions of a joint secession by Washington, Oregon and California in response to the election of Donald Trump.
Although all such efforts have fizzled, it is not for lack of trying.
Proponents of breaking up Snohomish County, for example, reportedly filed a complaint with the U.N., claiming Washington state had violated their political rights but were denied. They were likewise rejected by a state court after a judge found their pleadings largely “legally incoherent despite a heavy larding of pseudo-legal rhetoric.”
The campaign to rebrand Eastern Washington as Liberty is still showing signs of life, despite its main backer, former state Rep. Matt Shea, having been found in 2020 to have planned and participated in domestic terrorism against the United States by an investigation commissioned by the Washington state House.
Bills to create Liberty were reintroduced in 2021 and 2022.
A 2019 online petition supporting Shea’s idea was still drawing support as recently as last May, with some backers urging Eastern Washington to join Western Idaho. To date, it has 651 signatures.
