‘We don’t have a democracy’: why some Oregonians want to join Idaho

Under a large tent at the Crook county fairgrounds in Prineville, Oregon, six people stand in a neat line, each clutching the gun in their holster. "Shooters, set," a man to the side yells. They wait. A light turns on in the centre of the target. They fire. A clock above records how long it took them to draw, shoot and, if they managed to, hit the target. They're playing in pairs. Best two out of three wins.

Welcome to Oregon's Cowboy Fast Draw State Championship, a sport organisers say is "dedicated to the romance and legend of the Old West".

The residents of Prineville are voting on 21 May on a fundamental question: "Should Crook county represent that its citizens support efforts to move the Idaho state border to include Crook county?" If a majority votes yes, the county will become the 13th to vote in favor of leaving the state of Oregon and joining next-door Idaho instead. Polarisation breeds frustration which creates secession. America's past and present.

Calvin Foster, who competed under the name of Scrub Brush, is the man in charge of affairs at the Fast Draw, and he sums up his political frustration.

The cities "don't understand the life that we have out on this side of the state", he says.

The majority of Oregon's just over 4 million residents live on the western side of the Cascade Mountains, which run down the centre of the state. To the west lie high-density cities like Portland, Salem and Eugene, which in past years have voted largely Democratic. To the east are sparsely populated counties that have reliably voted Republican. Democrats have held the governorship since 1987.

The presidency of Donald Trump and the Covid pandemic have heightened divisions - with different groups starkly diverging on how they think the state should move forward. Crook county voted for Donald Trump, a Republican governor, against decriminalising drugs and against restrictions on gun ownership. The state went the other way every time.