Why Some Californians Want to Break Away to Form a New State

(L-R) Paul Preston, Liz Ritchie, Chriss Street, and Donald Wilson at the second New California State Convention in Irvine, Calif. on Oct. 6, 2018. David Zhang/The Epoch Times

IRVINE, Calif.—More than 160 Californians from 32 counties recently attended New California’s second constitutional convention. New California is a movement to break away from current California and form a new state.

The movement claimed independence for the new state on Jan. 15—Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The activists in this movement say they’ve followed Article 4, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, and are using the same process that West Virginia used in separating from Virginia in 1861.