At Thursday’s McDonough County Board Meeting, the Board passed a resolution, 15 to 3, to place a referendum on the November ballot asking voters if they would consider the “possibility of creating a new state and separating from Cook County.”
At this month’s Law and Legal committee, all but one member voted to place a referendum and to move the resolution forward to the full board for consideration. Board members voting in favor of the referendum included Eric Blakeley, Eric Chapman, Clayton Cook, Dave Cortelyou, Mike Cox, Joe Erlandson, Craig Foster, Travis Hiel, Vicky Kipling, Ryan Litchfield, Clayton Murphy, Riley Smith, Terry Thompson and Roger Ward, while Ken Durkin, Allen Henderson and Dana Roy Walker voted against the measure.
Board member Clayton Cook (R), who represents McDonough County Board District 2, invited Loret Newlin, director of Illinois Separation, to present to Law & Legal about her group’s initiative. Newlin was also present at Wednesday’s Board meeting. Newlin’s organization, which formed in 2016, is not affiliated with New Illinois, another group that is attempting to secede the rest of the state from Cook County.
The wording that will appear on the November ballot is: “Shall the board of McDonough County correspond with the boards of the other counties of Illinois outside of Cook County about the possibility of separating from Cook County to form a new state, and to seek admission to the Union as such, subject to the approval of the people?”
In a nine-page packet Newlin provided to Board members, the Illinois Separation, on page two, states “OUR GOALS OF FORMING A NEW STATE isn’t about skin color (with different color heart emojis) or political party (with a red check box and a blue check box), IT IS ABOUT TAXES, VALUES, REPRESENTATION AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.”
The Community News Brief covered Newlin’s Law & Legal presentation with an in-depth story appearing in the Friday, June 5, 2026 issue, which is available online. In addition to Newlin’s statements, the CNB also presented the “flip side” through an interview with Chris Merrett, director of the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at Western Illinois University. The IIRA researches and studies economic development throughout Illinois, the impact of taxes, business and industry on rural areas and other factions that affect and impact rural regions throughout the state.
In other business Wednesday evening, the Board voted to approve an incremental salary increase for the county assessor over four years, and the construction of a culvert on Bedford Road at a cost of $16,600.
