47% of West Coast Dems, 66% of Southern Republicans Want to Secede From U.S.

Two-thirds of Southern Republicans say they support breaking away from the U.S. and forming their own country with nearby states, while nearly half of Democrats on the West Coast would do the same.

A 66 percent majority of Republicans in 13 Southern states including Texas and Florida are in favor of seceding from the union, according to a poll released Wednesday by Bright Line Watch. Half of all independents in the South agreed, while only 20 percent of Southern Democrats were on board.

Support for forming a breakaway country reached 47 percent among Democrats in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii. One-third of West Coast independents, or 33 percent, were in favor of succession, along with 27 percent of West Coast Republicans.

A smaller share of respondents from other regions agreed. In 13 Midwest states, support was highest among independents, 43 percent of whom wanted to secede. In Northeastern states, 39 percent of Democrats were in favor of leaving the U.S. and forming their own country, while 43 percent of Republicans in states near the Rocky Mountains said the same.

Support has increased significantly across the board since the same question was asked in a Bright Line Watch poll from February, when only 50 percent of Southern Republicans wanted to leave the union—16 percent less than the current figure. A 6 percent increase in support for secession occurred among West Coast Democrats.

Data analyst Christopher Ingraham described the poll results as the "most disturbing datapoint" he had recently seen on Twitter. In a post on his Substack online newsletter, Ingraham noted that many of those who expressed support for secession may be expressing support to indicate partisan loyalties rather than support for a potential new Civil War.

"It probably makes sense to read these results more as statements of political identity (e.g., 'I'm a proud Southerner and I don't like Joe Biden!') than as signs of actual intent," Ingraham wrote.

"Nevertheless, the sheer number of Americans — particularly Republicans and Independents in the South — willing to turn 'blow the whole thing up' into a signal of partisan loyalty is troubling," he added.

The poll was conducted between June 26 and July 2. Polling firm YouGov surveyed 2,750 U.S. adults, while a sample of 327 political science experts also participated in the poll. A margin of error was not listed.

The political science experts who responded to the poll were asked to rate several political events on the normality and importance of each event. Multiple events related to former President Donald Trump's repeated false claims of massive fraud in the 2020 election were rated both "abnormal" and "important" or "mostly important."

Newsweek reached out to the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee for comment.