There’s a new effort afoot to separate eastern and rural Washington from the progressive political pull of the Puget Sound region.
State Rep. Rob Chase (R-Spokane Valley) proposes to create two autonomous political jurisdictions within the state (HB 2085). One would contain the counties that border Puget Sound and include the Olympic Peninsula. The other would cover eastern Washington and counties adjacent to the Columbia Gorge.
Chase’s bill is different than past secessionist bills filed by Spokane Valley legislators.
“It's sort of like the movement to form a new state of East Washington, which really wasn't going anywhere. But then I saw what New York state was doing,” he said.
What New York was doing was considering independent regions within the state’s existing boundaries.
“Everything federal would stay the same,” he said.
“So you still have the dams and the forts and the reservations and your two U.S. senators and Congress people. But with autonomous regions, you would have your own regional governor, legislature, and a constitution, a regional constitution," Chase told SPR News. "So that sounds like that would be an easier way to go in some respects.”
Easier, because he said it wouldn’t require Congressional approval to create a new state.
Chase says the bill should appeal not only to people in largely conservative and rural eastern Washington, but also to voters in the blue, urban portions of the state, whose tax receipts subsidize rural areas.
“I call it win-win because they would get to keep their money and we would get, you know, our own legislators. So we would actually have taxation with representation,” he said.
While his version wouldn’t need Congressional approval, it would need the assent of the legislature and the public because the proposal would change the state constitution. That requires a two-thirds supermajority of both the legislature and public.
Chase’s bill was filed late in the 2025 legislative session and referred to committee but never received a hearing. This week in Spokane Valley, Chase held the second in a series of town hall meetings to explain the proposal to the public. He said he hopes to sponsor meetings in other cities leading up to the 2026 legislative session.
The legislation is co-sponsored by the two House members from northeast Washington’s 7th Legislative District, Reps. Andrew Engell (R-Colville) and Hunter Abell (R-Inchelium), as well as Walla Walla Republican Mark Klicker and Pierce County Republican Matt Marshall.
