If Halbrook and his supporters have their way, the 51st state would not be the District of Columbia or Puerto Rico. Halbrook, who represents a district east of Springfield, Ill., reintroduced a bill in February to create a new state around Chicago. Collin Cliburn, 32, started the Illinois Separation blog in 2018. “It’s always popular downstate to run against Chicago.”The problem isn’t unique to Illinois, according to Robert P. Jones, chief executive of the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization. According to the PRRI’s 2018 American Values Atlas, the differences between Chicago and the rest of the state are stark.

Source: Washington Post May 20, 2019 21:24 UTC