CANYON CITY, Ore. — Just under three years after Move Oregon’s Border was launched, supporters of the push to make Eastern Oregon counties part of Idaho say the movement is gaining traction with residents and lawmakers in both states.

“We’ve had an amazing fall,” Sandie Gilson said during the Dec. 7 meeting of the Grant County Court. “We now have 11 of the 15 counties in Eastern Oregon that have approved our proposal.”

Gilson, a Grant County resident, serves on the boards of both Move Oregon’s Border and Citizens for Greater Idaho, affiliated organizations that were formed to promote the Greater Idaho movement. The groups argue that residents of Oregon’s largely rural east side have been disenfranchised by more densely populated — and much more liberal — Western Oregon counties and would be better off as part of Idaho, which tends to share the region’s conservative values.

In May 2021, Grant County voters passed a measure requiring the county court to discuss the idea of joining Idaho three times each year.

During last month’s elections, Gilson noted, voters in Wheeler and Morrow counties passed measures expressing support for the idea of cutting ties with Oregon and becoming part of Idaho. Wallowa County is expected to vote on a similar measure in May.

“Things are moving faster and moving forward now that the elections are over,” Gilson said.

The next stage in the process, Gilson said, is to get formal discussions started in the Oregon and Idaho legislatures. Both bodies would need to sign off on a change in the state borders, a step that would ultimately require congressional approval.

While no such discussions have happened up to this point, Gilson said, there now appears to be a new willingness among lawmakers in both states to take up the matter. Two other leaders in the Greater Idaho movement, Mike McCarter and Matt McCaw, participated in the meeting by phone and agreed that the idea is starting to be taken more seriously.

“We have legislators and representatives that are ready to move this forward and get this conversation started,” McCaw said.

Another sign that the Greater Idaho movement may be gaining steam: A documentary crew from the Japanese Broadcasting Corp. attended the Dec. 7 Grant County Court meeting to film Gilson’s presentation and interview her and others afterward.

“That’s the third TV network we’ve had in John Day on this subject,” Gilson said in an interview after the meeting. “We had one out of Denmark about a year and a half ago, and CBS News was here in October.”

So why the renewed interest now? Gilson points to the failure of the widely anticipated “red wave” to materialize in the last month’s balloting. With Republicans gaining little ground in the midterm elections, she said, GOP lawmakers are looking at other ways to move conservative proposals forward.

“Legislators are starting to recognize that there is this huge divide in Oregon,” she said. “It is becoming unsustainable, and there needs to be a solution.”