The Greater Idaho movement — the effort to bring the Eastern Oregon region into the borders of Idaho — has captured the attention of not just the state and the nation, but the entire world, with major television network coverage of the issue and even outlets from Europe and Asia paying heed.

If anything, the movement has called serious attention to the east-west divide in the state of Oregon, but its leaders hope their work will amount to no less than the complete redrawing of the boundaries of Idaho to encompass much of Eastern Oregon.

Among the movement’s leaders is Grant County business owner Sandie Gilson, who says the people of Eastern Oregon, whose conservative values are more aligned with those of the state of Idaho, would be better served as Idahoans instead of Oregonians.

Some may ask, ‘Why not just move there?’

For Gilson, home is here.

“How do I pick up my job and move there and why do I have to move to get better government?” Gilson asked. “Why can’t I vote? Why can’t I speak up? Why can’t all of us speak up and get government that we want, that matches who we are? Why do we have to leave our community?”

Gilson, a fifth-generation Oregonian with roots in Paisley, moved to John Day with her husband in 2006. Since then, she’s been a leader of the Elks Lodge here and owns a real estate business in which she works as an escrow officer.

An avid reader of e-books and news articles, Gilson was prompted to seek out the leader of the Greater Idaho movement after reading an article in the Blue Mountain Eagle several years ago. Gilson asked Move Oregon’s Border President Mike McCarter, who lives in La Pine, what she could do for the effort.

“I actually saw an article in the Blue Mountain Eagle where they had interviewed Mike as he was getting this started and he was talking about each one of the counties and doing ballot measures,” she said.

At the time, the movement had been collecting signatures for ballot measures seeking voter approval of the movement’s goals.

“I’m in Grant County,” Gilson said. “I told him I would gather the signatures to get him on the ballot here. He said, ‘Great.’ He emailed me the ballot initiative, and I started going door to door in the community.”

Since the formation of the group, voters in 12 Eastern Oregon counties, including Grant, have approved ballot measures broadly endorsing the idea. Specifically, Grant County voters in May of 2021 passed a measure requiring the county court to discuss the idea of joining Idaho three times each year.

In November of that year, voters in Wheeler and Morrow counties passed measures expressing support for the idea of cutting ties with Oregon and becoming part of Idaho. Wallowa County voters passed a similar measure in May of 2022.

Since joining the effort, Gilson has been featured as a key figure for the movement during televised segments on CBS and CNN, and she said journalists from England and Japan have interviewed her as well.

Idaho, she said, is a better fit.

“Idaho has the values, the beliefs and the core ‘who we are’ matches us here in Eastern Oregon to Idaho,” Gilson said. “They’re more self-sufficient. They’re not expecting their government to take care of them from cradle to grave. … The problem with that is that cradle-to-grave support comes from our tax dollars and if you continue to incentivize people not to work, not to be productive, then that reduces the amount of people being taxed to support that. At some point in time, there’s a tipping point.”

Gilson is currently busy with the group preparing for a similar ballot measure to go before Crook County voters in May.

While some may see the group’s ultimate goal as unlikely, Gilson is quick to point out that “they didn’t believe the American Revolution, either.”

“I would like to see it in my lifetime because I think Eastern Oregon has a lot of potential that Oregon is keeping back,” she said.

A past exalted ruler of the John Day Elks Lodge, Gilson keeps busy with events to help fellow residents in need. Last year, Gilson helped organize a benefit dinner at the lodge that raised $11,000 for area firefighters and business owners adversely affected by a commercial fire that closed three storefronts in downtown John Day.

Between her real estate business and the business of helping lead the Greater Idaho movement, Gilson also finds time to engage in her lifelong passion for reading.

Gilson is a voracious reader. In fact, she reads so much that she’s given up acquiring physical books in favor of electronic versions. A fan of Harlequin romance and fantasy novels, Gilson said she reads five to eight books a week and her e-book collection currently runs in the tens of thousands of titles.

“I start my day by reading the Oregonian and news sites online and I read constantly and obsessively, whether it’s news stories or novels,” Gilson said. “I have a constant need for information and I’m constantly gathering information.”

Grant County Neighbors

NAME: Sandie Gilson

AGE: 57

RESIDENCE: Mt. Vernon

OCCUPATION: Escrow officer, vice president of Citizens for Greater Idaho and vice president of Move Oregon’s Border

HOBBIES: Reading novels