Constitutional amendment would be on 2022 ballot if approved.

A New Hampshire lawmaker is pushing for a referendum asking the state's voters if they want to secede from the United States.

State Rep. Mike Sylvia, a Belmont Republican, said he has filed a proposed constitutional amendment that would ask voters in the 2022 midterm elections to break ties with Washington, D.C., and become a separate nation-state.

In an interview, Sylvia said he filed the measure in response to the federal government's actions to prevent spread of the coronavirus, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's eviction ban and more recently President Joe Biden's mandate requiring federal workers to get vaccinated.