What Does Calexit Mean? California’s Secession Ballot Movement Explained By Group’s Founder

Could California really leave the United States? That’s certainly the goal of Louis Marinelli.

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s Election Day victory in November and his first month in office, Marinelli’s Yes California — “Calexit” for short — movement to secede from the United States via a sweeping ballot initiative intended for a special March 2019 election has grown.

Recently, in interviews with the New York Times, CBS News and Breitbart, Marinelli has expounded on the growth of the likely futile movement, as well as his reasons for starting Yes California. To date, the group has astronomically increased its manpower, from 400 members to more than 8,000 since Trump claimed the White House, and it’s working to gather more than 585,000 signatures necessary to put the initiative on California’s ballot. Yet, even if the measure passed, an actual secession would require an amendment to the Constitution.

Strangely, a 30-year-old English teacher who currently resides in Russia, Marinelli admitted he voted for Trump but that his movement is now viewed as “anti-Trump.” His efforts began after Congress failed to implement immigration reform in 2014 because it affected his marriage, he told Breitbart.

“The dysfunction in Washington,” Marinelli said in explaining why he started Calexit. “But the straw that broke the camel’s back for me was Congress’ inability to pass comprehensive immigration reform in 2014 after the Senate passed it and the president promised to sign it. Even a majority of the House of Representatives would have voted for it if it were brought up to a vote.

“But partisan political games held that vote up and that directly impacted my family and my marriage. It exerted a tremendous amount of stress on my relationship when the woman I brought here from another country couldn’t work, study or really do much more than sit around the house all day because of the political situation in my country. ”

Trump’s victory resulted in more than 160,000 people signing up for Yes California’s mailing list and its volunteers also grew to cover 40 statewide chapters, but critics have questioned why Marinelli is currently living in Russia and if he has ties to the Russian government when it’s been accused of meddling in and supporting a Trump win.

“A lot of misinformation goes out about us, such as I know President Vladimir Putin or work in the Kremlin,” Marinelli told the Times from his home in Yekaterinburg. “It’s kind of funny because if we had secret Russian support, we wouldn’t be open. I live in Russia. I would have to hide that, not promote it. We have nothing to hide. We’re doing some good work here. We’re going to continue to do that.”