Looking to capitalize on the anger of Virginia's Second Amendment defenders on its border, West Virginia is ready to offer those counties to join the Mountain State, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.
"We're starting to get some phone calls from friends on the border who say these folks want to leave," West Virginia Del. Gary Howell told the Examiner.
Howell has proposed state legislation to make the annexation official via vote.
"In a spirit of conciliation, the Legislature of West Virginia hereby extends an invitation to our fellow Virginians who wish to do so, to join us in our noble experiment of 156 years of separation from the government at Richmond; and, we extend an invitation to any constituent county or city of the Commonwealth of Virginia to be admitted to the body politic of the State of West Virginia," HCR 8 read.
The news comes amid President Donald Trump warning Virginia will be a 2020 election battleground on the protecting of the Second Amendment against Democrats' gun control efforts – one election after the state flipped from Republicans.
Also, this week, Richmond, Virginia, hosted a pro-gun rally.
"We've been looking way down the road," Howell told the Examiner. "Once we realized that this was getting very real, we figured that we have to have answers for this, we have to have a plan in place. That's what we've been discussing."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.