Overview
- Assemblyman James Gallagher told the Shasta County Board on Nov. 6 he will reintroduce a resolution to create a new inland state separating rural counties from the coast.
- His concept envisions a north-to-south split forming a state of roughly 35–36 counties from the Oregon border to the Mexico line.
- The board’s conservative majority offered mixed reactions, with one supervisor backing the idea and others warning of lost state services and feasibility issues.
- Any split would require approval by California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature and then the U.S. Congress, a sequence experts say has doomed past partition drives.
- Proposition 50 passed on Nov. 4 to install legislature-drawn U.S. House maps for 2026–2030 that are expected to boost Democrats and target five GOP-held seats.