Interest in pushing for California's secession from the United States has increased after Donald Trump won the presidency.

The "Yes California" campaign is backing an independence referendum in support of a constitutional exit of the state from the US. In the wake of 60% of the state's voters supporting the presidential loser, Hillary Clinton, the movement is getting renewed interest.

"As the sixth largest economy in the world, California is more economically powerful than France and has a population larger than Poland. Point-by-point, California compares and competes with countries, not just the 49 other states," the campaign's website said.

The #calexit name stems from the successful "brexit" campaign in Britain to leave the European Union.

While the Yes Campaign has been considered a fringe movement in the past, it began trending on social media Wednesday night attracting more mainstream notice. Supporters are proposing a referendum on the issue in 2019. Thousands take to the streets to protest Trump win Hundreds of protesters -- many of them Latino -- hit Los Angeles City Hall Wednesday night chanting "¡Si se puede!" (Spanish for "yes, it's possible" or "yes, one can" -- a longtime rallying cry of the United Farm Workers). Activists chanting #NotMyPresident in cities from coast-to-coast occupied the streets protesting the election results that made the former reality show star the next president. Police estimated that thousands of people stood outside New York City's Trump Tower protesting the president-elect's positions on immigration and law enforcement. "I came out here to let go of a lot of fear that was sparked as soon as I saw the results," protester Nick Powers told CNN. </s> Supporters of Californian independence have taken the first step towards secession from the US by submitting a ballot proposal to the state attorney general.

A group called called the ‘Yes California Independence Campaign’ submitted their proposal for a ballot measure on removing a piece of the state’s Constitution that describes it as an “inseparable” part of America.

The group has been around since 2014, but the idea of California’s secession gained momentum since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.

On Monday, the Yes California Independence Campaign proposed to include the matter on the ballot during the November 2018 gubernatorial elections across the US, where 39 state and territorial governorships as well as numerous other state and local elections would be contested.

The request was filed with the attorney general’s office, asking it to “prepare a circulating title and summary of the enclosed ballot measure: “Calexit: The California Independence Plebiscite of 2019.”

The independence vote would be held sometime in the spring of 2019, provided that the group changes the California Constitution and then collects the number signatures required to put the measure on the 2018 gubernatorial ballot.

The idea of a so-called “Calexit” was first brought up by the group more than two years ago but it only gained traction after Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory on November 8.

According to Marcus Ruiz Evans, the group’s vice president, the Yes California Independence Campaign has thousands of followers on various social media websites and some 13,000 people have volunteered to collect signatures.

Evans said that Trump’s election showed that his organization was right in doubting the current electoral system’s ability to bring real change.

With a population of nearly 38.5 million people, California has 53 electoral votes, more than any US state. All of the state’s electoral votes went to Trump’s democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The final results of the presidential vote in the state would determine how many signature the group needs to place the matter on the ballot.

Evans said if 55 percent of the voters supported a referendum on the secession, the group would be able to take the matter to the United Nations according to the world body’s self-determination treaty.

The majority support would amount to an internationally recognized threshold which in turn requires the state’s governor to ask the UN to recognize “the Republic of California” as a member.

To change the Federal Constitution which does not allow secession, the group needs the approval of Congress and 38 states, experts say. </s> Backers seeking to break California away from the U.S. started collecting signatures Friday to get a proposed independence measure on the 2018 statewide ballot.

This isn't the first effort aimed at California secession but leaders say the previous tries were mostly about building awareness of the issue and increasing public support. They say recent polls show more Californians want a divorce from the union and believe that President Donald Trump's election also has boosted their cause.



"We definitely see that there's some newfound support for this and we want to get the signatures out there, especially now because we're in the first 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency when he's going to be aggressively pursuing his policies that the people of California are going to reject — and have rejected," Louis Marinelli, president of the Yes California Independence movement, said in an interview Friday.

However, the state-prepared summary on the petition from California Secretary of State Alex Padilla calls out the uncertain road ahead in this effort, which would have multiple hurdles.

Specifically, the summary said "the fiscal impact of this measure is dependent on various factors, including a vote by the people on this measure, a subsequent vote on California independence, possible legal challenges, and implementation issues. Assuming that California actually became an independent nation, the state and its local governments would experience major, but unknown, budgetary impacts."

In terms of annual GDP, California would rank sixth worldwide if it were a separate nation. California, home to about one out of every eight Americans, voted in favor of Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

Marinelli pointed to a recent opinion poll by Reuters/Ipsos showing one third of California residents now support breaking away from the U.S. The Reuters poll of 500 Californians, which was conducted from Dec. 6 to Jan. 19, found 32 percent support for the withdrawal. That compares with about 20 percent support, or one-in-five Californians, who backed the secession idea in 2014.



According to Marinelli, the so-called Calexit backers have about 7,000 supporters mobilized to gather signatures statewide for the new California nationhood initiative. The California Secretary of State's office said Thursday the backers of the measure must collect the signatures of 585,407 registered voters to qualify for the ballot. Organizers have until July 25, 2017, to meet the requirement.

"We think it's going to be quite easy for us to make the sell," said Marinelli. "California is a different place and has its own culture, its own history, its own identity, its own world view, and its own ideology in a large respect. So we would feel better off if we can set our own destiny, set our own path forward and not be connected to a lot of these obsolete policies of the American system."

Added Marinelli, "There's a lot of this dysfunction going on in the American system, the corruption in Washington, the animosity within the United States as a whole. So we want to break away from all that and set a new path forward. To establish for ourselves some kind of progressive republic on the western shores of North America."

The referendum aims to repeal a provision in the state's constitution that reads "California is an inseparable part of the United States of America, and the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land."

"What we want to do is give the people of California the chance to vote yes or no on independence," said Marinelli. "If the people want to stay in the country and they want to remain a state they can vote no. We're certainly going to be focusing on the argument about convincing people why it's better for us to become our own country."

Calexit backers see divorce from the union as a two-step process — first the vote in 2018 to repeal the "inseparable" provision from the state constitution and then a special election in 2019 for the independence vote itself. </s> California secessionists launched their CalExit signature-gathering drive Friday, riding a wave of momentum churned up by the inauguration of President Trump.

Organizers of the Yes California Independence Campaign posted on their website a downloadable online petition for volunteers circulators a day after the proposed ballot measure was cleared by the California Secretary of State Alex Padilla.

The committee has 180 days to collect at least 585,407 valid signatures to qualify the initiative for the November 2018 ballot.

Recent polls show support for California nationhood falls well short of a majority, but that the idea is catching on with voters.

A Reuters/IPSOS poll released Tuesday found 32 percent of California residents surveyed support seceding from the union as the state’s staunchly liberal voters recoil from the Republican president.

“A third of Californians support #Calexit, Trump is coming after our undocumented immigrants & sanctuary cities,” said Yes California in a Friday tweet. “Come on Sacramento! Join us!”

The 1 in 3 figure represents a surge from a Hoover Institution Golden State Poll released Jan. 19, which found 27 percent of Californians favor CalExit, a term coined after last year’s Brexit vote in which British voters broke from the European Union.

“Among partisans, Democrats were more likely to support Calexit than Republicans, but in the wake of a presidential election, one has to wonder if those partisan differences are driven by dissatisfaction with the outcome of the presidential race rather than anything inherent in the politics of the Golden State,” said Tammy Frisby, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

The initiative would repeal a section from the California Constitution that declares the state is “an inseparable part of the United States and that the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land.”

The measure would also place a referendum on the 2019 ballot on whether to form a separate nation on the November 2019 ballot.

California Democratic legislators have positioned themselves as a bulwark against the Trump administration, releasing a video on Inauguration Day ticking off their policy priorities and describing California as a “light to the nation.”

“California is more than a great place to live; it is a great source of innovation and an unrivaled economic engine. And so, for the next four years and beyond, we will work to be a light to the nation,” the California Democrats said in the video, called a #DearCalifornians letter.

CalExit supporters argue that the state would be better off as an independent nation, given its ranking as the world’s sixth-largest economy and liberal politics. Democrat Hillary Clinton defeated Mr. Trump in California by a whopping margin of 61 to 31 percent.

“In the age of Trump and Brexit, anything is possible, including a democratic and legal method for California to become its own nation,” said Yes California President Marcus Ruiz Evans in a Jan. 21 op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News.

Others have said good riddance, citing California’s $400 billion in unfunded liabilities and debt.

“As long as we can build a wall around you and you promise to keep the Hollywood loonies, I’m all for it!” said Gail Bayne on Yes California’s Facebook page. “Good luck with a hostile nation invades you.” </s> The question could appear on a statewide ballot in 2018 if a group of secessionists has its way.

Yes California has been pushing for the state to break away from the United States and become its own country for several years.

Marcus Evans, the vice president of Yes California, filed a proposed ballot measure with the Attorney General’s Office on Monday that would appear on the November 2018 gubernatorial ballot.

“We always thought that if we just connected with the people who thought about this, but didn’t tell their friends and family because they would be seen as kooky and weird, that the quiet population would become vocal,” Evans said. “If you don’t want to support our suggestion, that’s fine. Let’s just have the conversation and discuss the facts.”

Yes California’s plan to secede is a long shot.

The measure aimed at the 2018 ballot attempts to strike language from the California Constitution that says the state is “an inseparable part of the United States of America, and the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land.” It also asks voters if they want to secede from the country.

If voters approve the measure, it would establish a special election in March 2019 to ask voters again if they want California to become an independent country, Yes California wrote in a ballot measure filing.

More than half of the registered voters in the state must participate in the special election and at least 55 percent must vote “yes” for the proposal to move forward, according to information submitted by the group. If voters approve the measure, “the governor shall carry and shepherd an application for the newly independent Republic of California to join the United Nations,” they say.

Louis J. Marinelli, president of Yes California, said the group plans to go through the United Nations to seek independence because they don’t believe Congress would sign off on a California exit plan.

“We’re not ashamed about going around Washington to achieve it,” Marinelli said. “Congress can’t tie its shoes. We can wait our whole life while Congress tries to grapple with this, and they won’t do anything.”

Evans said the group filed the ballot proposal in response to an uptick in support in a deep-blue state following the election of Donald Trump.

About 11,000 people liked the Facebook page for Yes California Independence Campaign on election night. The group was nearly to 28,000 likes as of Monday. Supporters have even dubbed the movement “Calexit,” playing off “Brexit,” Britain’s historic decision to leave the European Union in June.

Now the group needs to gather more than half a million signatures from registered California voters for the proposal to qualify for the ballot.

Yes California’s main argument is that California and the U.S. have conflicting values, and the state pays more than its fair share in federal taxes to subsidize other states. Meanwhile, he said, the state’s infrastructure is crumbling, schools are failing and millions of people live in poverty. Evans believes California, which would have the world’s sixth-largest economy if it were a standalone country, would be better off as an independent nation. </s> California Calexit organizers have successfully convinced the California government to allow them to gather the signatures necessary to present a secession ballot in the 2018 election that would call for a 2019 vote to secede from the United States, creating a California nation. According to the Associated Press, this already existing secessionist movement began gathering steam the moment Donald Trump was elected to the White House.

Almost one-third of all Californians currently support the idea of a California Calexit in which they would secede from the United States. As with the Brexit vote in the U.K., it’s quite possible that active campaigning by the initiative’s organizers could increase this percentage significantly.

As reported by USA Today, part of the purpose of the Calexit ballot initiative is to change the wording of certain clauses in the California Constitution that declare it to be an “inseparable part of the United States” and stating that the United States Constitution is the “supreme law of the land.” This would make possible a vote on California seceding from the United States.

But even assuming that the ballot initiative is successful and that a resulting secession vote for a California Calexit is “Yes,” there would still be obstacles to actually achieving a separate California nation. One of the principal problems is that the rest of the country has a say in whether California can actually do this or not.

For California to secede from the United States in a Calexit, a California Nationhood Amendment to the Constitution would have to be passed by the United States Congress and ratified by 38 states. This might seem like a fairly high hurdle – and it is. But people thought Brexit was unlikely to happen as well.

But as one of the organizers of the Calexit ballot initiative has pointed out, many of the people living in states that elected Donald Trump don’t like California or Californians, often wishing the state would fall into the sea. So a California Calexit amendment to the Constitution might just be something they can get on board with.

Of course, once California – which contributes almost $300 billion to the federal budget in taxes and receives much less in return – is gone, many of those people in red states might wonder what happened to all of their federal funding. Most Trump supporters seem to believe that they prop up California, instead of the other way round.

There would be – in the event of a successful California Calexit initiative – endless details that would have to be worked out between the United States government and the newly minted nation of California. For instance, what would happen to the Social Security fund? Would California get back those sums that it contributed to the fund, or some percentage based on its population? Or would they still use the existing Social Security program?

An agreement might be worked out where California citizens would still have access to the United States Social Security fund, in the same way that expatriates can live in Mexico and still get their check. But Medicare and Medicaid would also have to be transferred to California.

In the aftermath of a successful California Calexit, there would be the issue of a California military – assuming California wanted one at all. Given that California would be bordered by the ocean and otherwise surrounded by a country that presumably would not invade it, military expenditures might be unnecessary.

Yes, a California Calexit vote in the affirmative is highly unlikely. This is especially the case because the secession of California to form its own separate nation would also require the passage of the aforementioned constitutional amendment that might never make it out of committee, let alone see ratification by 38 states. Still, the odds have increased significantly since the election of Donald Trump – and are only likely to rise as Donald Trump’s antics continue in the coming months. </s> New York – California has announced a proposal, called “Calexit” that would establish it as a separate nation from the U.S., officials have said.

The proposal for California to secede from the U.S. was submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office on Thursday, according to a report.

The proposed “Calexit” initiative was a name borrowed from the UK’s “Brexit” departure from the EU.

“Calexit” would ask voters to repeal part of the state constitution that declares California an inseparable part of the U.S.

A recent poll found that one in three California residents would support a possible secession from the U.S. due to their opposition to President Donald Trump, according to the proposal.

No mention has been made of the president in the proposal.

If the proposal qualifies for the ballot and is approved by voters, it could be a step to a future vote on whether the state would break away from the rest of the nation.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla said the group behind the proposal, ‘Yes California Independence Campaign’, was cleared to begin attempting to collect nearly 600,000 voter signatures needed to place the plan on the ballot.

“In our view, the United States of America represents so many things that conflict with Californian values.

“And our continued statehood means California will continue subsidising the other states to our own detriment, and to the detriment of our children,” the Yes California Independence Campaign’s website says. </s> A campaign for California to secede from the rest of the country over Donald Trump's election is gaining momentum, with supporters allowed to start collecting signatures for the measure to be put to a vote.

California's Secretary of State Alex Padilla gave the green light on Thursday for proponents of "California Nationhood" -- also known as Calexit -- to start collecting the nearly 600,000 signatures needed for the measure to qualify on the November 2018 ballot.

The 585,407 signatures required by July 25 represent eight percent of registered voters in California -- the most populous state in the country with nearly 40 million residents and the world's sixth-largest economy.

Should the initiative make it on the ballot, a "Yes" vote would repeal clauses in the California Constitution "stating California is an inseparable part of the United States and that the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land," a statement by Padilla's office said.

Voters would then need to decide in another referendum in 2019 whether California should become a separate country.

Padilla said the independence measure -- deemed highly unrealistic -- would have a deep impact on the state and would likely face legal challenges.

"Assuming that California actually became an independent nation, the state and its local governments would experience major, but unknown, budgetary impacts," he warned.

"This measure also would result in tens of millions of dollars of one-time state and local election costs."

Calexit enthusiasts, whose campaign is called Yes California, are pushing for independence on grounds the state is out of step with the rest of the US and could flourish on its own.

"In our view, the United States of America represents so many things that conflict with Californian values, and our continued statehood means California will continue subsidizing the other states to our own detriment, and to the detriment of our children," according to their website.

The idea of independence became very appealing to many Californians following Trump's shock election.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton easily beat Trump in the progressive state, winning by more than 4.2 million votes, almost double the number of ballots cast for Trump. </s> SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Supporters of a long-shot bid to make California an independent nation on Monday ended their effort to put it to a statewide vote next year, despite the extra interest it drew after last year’s election of Republican Donald Trump as president.

The secretary of state’s office confirmed that Marcus Ruiz Evans, vice president of the Yes California Independence Campaign, notified officials he intends to withdraw the California Nationhood ballot measure.

The group’s president, Louis Marinelli, said in a lengthy message to supporters that he is seeking permanent residence in Russia. He said supporters may try again to separate California from the rest of the United States sometime in the future.

The ballot measure would have allowed voters to repeal a part of the state Constitution saying that California is an inseparable part of the United States, but left the question of whether California should become a separate country to a future ballot. It would have required that the governor ask to join the United Nations if 55 percent of voters supported that future declaration of independence.

Congress and 38 states would have had to agree to change the U.S. Constitution to permit California to actually secede.

The group had received a social media boost with Trump’s election. Marinelli said in November that the group’s Facebook contacts grew from about 11,000 to about 15,000 as election results came in, while its email account received about 3,000 messages.

He and Evans said California’s overwhelming support of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and measures legalizing recreational marijuana and reducing crime penalties showed how far California voters were removed from the rest of the nation.

They also equated the movement to last year’s decision by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, dubbed Brexit. California, with its 39 million residents, is often compared to a nation, and data from the World Bank shows its economy was equivalent to the sixth-largest in the world in 2015.

However, the group needed more than 585,000 signatures by July to put a measure on the ballot. Marinelli said it had fewer than 97,500 registered supporters. About 8,500 signed up as volunteers but only about 1,200 had contributed money.

Prior to Trump’s election, the group had fewer than 100 volunteers, Marinelli said.

Both Marinelli and Evans claimed credit, in separate statements, for starting the Calexit campaign.

“With the right leadership and sufficient resources, particularly of a financial nature, Calexit can and will really take off,” Marinelli said.

He acknowledged that his ties to Russia had become a distraction and said he intends to live there, if he is permitted, because of his “frustration, disappointment and disillusionment with the United States.”

He cited his struggle with U.S. officials since 2012 over the immigration status of his wife, a foreign national who he said faced the threat of deportation. He praised California officials for their attempts to shield immigrant residents from deportation and said his wife now has her green card.

When California one day becomes independent, Marinelli wrote, “I shall look forward with great satisfaction to return to California and to live once again under our bear flag.”
Some residents and business leaders in the state of California, which voted with majority support for Hillary Clinton, propose launching a secession movement from the United States after Donald Trump is elected president.