‘Let my people go’ is not a good reason to divide California into two states | Opinion
“Let my people go.”
That Moses-like declaration came last week from James Gallagher, a Republican Assembly member from the Sutter County town of East Nicolaus.
What caused him to get so biblical? Gallagher reacted to Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrat-led Legislature approving a measure for a special election in November to redraw the state’s congressional boundaries. New districts have the potential of gaining five more Democratic seats in Congress at the expense of areas now represented by Republicans.
It is Newsom’s way of fighting Texas, a GOP-led state whose governor just engineered a congressional redrawing so as to potentially gain five more Republicans in the House. President Donald Trump had asked for that redistricting.
Gallagher also believes that the people of inland California — basically everywhere east of the Coast Ranges and Southern California mountains, minus Sacramento — have been held captive politically and economically for decades by coastal Democrats.
The way to free the oppressed conservative folk of inland California from their supermajority oppressers, Gallagher said, is to split California into two states. His map does that vertically: A thin blue line of liberal California travels along the coast while the larger, more Republican inland areas are found to the east.
Gallagher’s Assembly Joint Resolution 23 would make that official, if approved. The yet-to-be named state would take 35 of California’s counties as its own, from Del Norte and Siskiyou counties to the north to Imperial County on the south.
“California is run by politicians who don’t care because they don’t have to,” Gallagher said in a news release. “They exploit our water, suppress our energy, skyrocket our costs, and kill our jobs.”
For the people of inland California, “life has become harder and completely unaffordable,” he added. “We have been overlooked for far too long, and now they are trying to rip away what little representation we have left.”
The ink had barely dried on Gallagher’s resolution before the naysayers were shooting down the idea. As a transplant from the coast to Fresno, I have perspective to bring to this debate. Without question, the inland state would have advantages over the coastal one, namely natural resources.
But dividing California as Gallagher, the former GOP Assembly leader, proposes is not in t he best interest of either side. Let me explain why.
Inland California’s advantages
When it comes to natural resources, inland California is in a good position. For one thing, it would have a better water supply, thanks to the snowpack that builds up in the Sierra and Cascade mountains every winter. While it is true that a lot of of water gets shipped to the coast — Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park serves San Francisco, for example — much of the snowpack’s runoff stays in the Central Valley to be used by farmers and cities.
The inland state would boast California’s key rivers, the Sacramento and San Joaquin, not to mention all the secondary waterways that flow into them.
Central Valley farming is a huge economic driver. California is the nation’s top farming state, and that is due largely to the farming done from Redding to Bakersfield. The coast has farming, to be sure, but it pales in comparison to what is produced by inland growers.
Then there are these comparisons:
- The coast has beaches. Inland California boasts the Salton Sea, which has miles of beach, even as the lake shrinks and local air quality is poor due to constant dust kicked up by winds.
- No wine country? Maybe not Napa or Sonoma, but good wines are produced in Madera County, and California’s largest winery by volume is Gallo, which is headquartered in Modesto.
- Coastal California has redwoods; inland California has their cousin, the mighty sequoia.
- Los Angeles has Hollywood, but inland California has Lone Pine. Its Alabama Hills have been the favored backdrop for Western movies for decades.
- The Bay Area might get cooling summer fog, but the San Joaquin Valley also has a seasonal fog — the cold blanket of gray called tule fog that blocks the sun for days on end during the winter.
- The coast enjoys a plethora of charming cities — from SoCal beach towns to the Central Coast and wine country. But inland California has quaint Gold Rush towns as well as the sophistication of Palm Springs.
Disadvantages to dividing California
Inland California has many positive qualities. Unfortunately, it also has some significant negative ones:
- Poverty is widespread in the San Joaquin Valley and Riverside-San Bernardino counties of the Inland Empire.
- Those regions also have some of the worst air quality in the nation, due to farming, the warehouse centers in the Inland Empire and the resulting diesel truck traffic, and blistering summer heat that promotes ozone formation.
- The Central Valley would have a lower tax base than coastal areas like Silicon Valley with its tech riches. As a result, inland cities don’t have as much funding for services as their coastal counterparts.
- The residents of inland counties also have lower educational attainment.
GOP, Democrats need to work it out
For a new state to be created, the Legislature must consent, and then Congress and the president must approve it. Gallagher’s resolution idea will go nowhere in a California Legislature dominated by Democrats — as he must know.
His cry of “Let my people go” is overdone, but his stunt does point to several truths about California.
One, the coastal counties cannot survive without the natural resources of the inland areas. The Bay Area and Los Angeles would not exist without water imported from elsewhere, for example. The farm products grown in the Central Valley literally do help feed the world — coastal California included. Anytime someone in Berkeley eats an almond, that person should tip their hat to the Valley, where almonds come from.
Second, inland California needs the riches of dollars and intelligence that belong to those living the coast. To overcome poverty, pollution and low educational attainment, thoughtful solutions and financial support are badly needed to lift inland counties up.
Far from dividing the state, as Gallagher proposes, California should become even more united. Supermajority Democrats should work more respectfully with their GOP colleagues, as they represent citizens, too.
But now I am the one engaged in wishful thinking.
This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 5:30 AM with the headline "‘Let my people go’ is not a good reason to divide California into two states | Opinion."