Tensions are high in a Utah redistricting fight that didn’t start with Trump

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is getting closer to redrawing its congressional boundaries in an unusual mid-decade redistricting process, but it’s not yet clear what that map will look like. In a heated committee meeting Wednesday, state lawmakers said they’re considering a lot of options before deciding in October.

Unlike other Republican-led states redistricting this year, Utah’s new map is expected to give Democrats more of a chance at winning at least one of the state’s four congressional districts, which could help Democrats in the race to control the U.S. House. State lawmakers were ordered to draw the new districts after a Utah judge ruled they had acted unconstitutionally in creating the map used in 2022.

GOP “complying under protest” 

The Legislature’s Republican supermajority has made it clear they are not happy they had to go back to the drawing board and are complying under protest. The map must be approved by lawmakers and the court by Nov. 10 to be used in the 2026 midterms, according to Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s office.

Utah’s voided congressional map split the bluest area of the state, Salt Lake County, among the state’s four districts, making four U.S. House seats safe for Republicans. That split was the biggest critique of the map, especially by county residents.

All of the proposed new boundaries also divide the county, the most populous one in the state, but some only split it into two districts.

Instead of advancing a single proposed map, the Legislature’s redistricting committee said Wednesday it will let the public weigh in on any map that has been posted on its website before making a decision. That includes six maps commissioned by lawmakers, as well as proposals submitted by citizens.

Lawmakers will choose from one of those maps, and only those maps, on Oct. 6. The map will go back to court for the judge to approve.

The national picture

Though Utah’s redistricting originated from a local court case, it’s playing out amid a redistricting race around the country set off by President Trump.

Usually, states redistrict early in the decade using new census numbers. In order to try to keep the GOP hold on the U.S. House and worried about midterm election losses, Trump has asked states led by Republicans to redistrict ahead of 2026 and help their party win seats.

At Trump’s urging, Texas passed a new map that could help Republicans win five more seats. To counter, California’s Democratic leaders are asking voters to approve a new map that could help their party win five seats on November 4. Missouri has followed Trump’s lead, with the Republican-led Legislature passing a map that could oust a Democratic congressman.

Republican leaders in Indiana and Florida say they are working to follow Trump’s call. They and other Republicans across the country say holding the U.S. House is key to maintaining Trump’s agenda and preventing investigations of his administration that could be launched by a Democratic-led House.

The Utahns who sued

In 2018, Utah voters narrowly approved a ballot initiative known as Proposition 4 that, among other things, created an independent redistricting commission and prohibited gerrymandering. In 2020, the Legislature repealed and replaced the initiative with a law that weakened the commission’s role and took out the prohibition on partisan gerrymandering.

In 2022, the League of Women Voters of Utah, Mormon Women for Ethical Government and a handful of Utah voters sued the Legislature. They alleged that the Legislature violated Utahns’ right to alter and reform their government and that the state’s 2021 congressional map was gerrymandered to favor Republicans.

In August of this year, a Utah judge ruled that the Legislature’s override of Proposition 4 was unconstitutional. Because the state’s 2021 congressional map was a product of that unconstitutional act, the judge said it had to go.

Without valid maps, the Legislature has to redraw the boundaries in accordance with Proposition 4, which the judge also reinstated.

At the same time, GOP state lawmakers are trying to pass a bill that creates a single standardized method for testing “partisan symmetry” in congressional maps to determine if boundaries are fair.

But Democrats on the committee argued that the test does not work in states like Utah where one party dominates in statewide elections.

That proposed test is what most concerns Elizabeth Rasmussen, executive director of Better Boundaries, the group that backed Proposition 4.

“I just see this as weaponization of the process to get a map they want,” Rasmussen says.

If the plaintiffs in the lawsuit have objections to the Legislature’s map, they are also allowed to submit a proposal to the court. If that happens, there will be additional court hearings in late October to decide which map will be used.