Matching multi-select field in one table to a field in another table

Hi,

I have two tables - projects and states. Each project occurs in at least one state, but sometimes in more than one state. So I created a multi-select field called Project States in the project table. I have another table called states which houses information about each state and where I want to be able to match a project to the state it occurs in. So for example, if a project is in both Florida and Georgia, I want to have the project appear in the states table under both Florida and Georgia. Does that makes sense? 

I've tried converting the multi-select field to a formula-text field, then tried matching the text in states to the formula field but it doesn't seem to be working. Is this a possible solution? Any ideas about other solutions to the problem? 

Thanks in advance for any help!