A Utah judge on Monday struck down a GOP-drawn congressional map, buoying Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections.
In ruling against Utah Republicans’ proposed map, Judge Dianna Gibson of Utah’s 3rd District Court found that conservatives in the state Legislature broke a state law that bans partisan gerrymandering.
As the Utah News Dispatch reported:
In her ruling, Gibson overwhelmingly sided with the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Utah Legislature, blocking the Republican-controlled Legislature’s map C from being used in the 2026 elections while instead approving one of the plaintiffs’ submitted alternatives, known as Map 1. The Legislature’s map, she wrote, ‘fails in many ways to comply with Proposition 4,’ a 2018 voter-approved law establishing an independent redistricting process and neutral map-drawing criteria. ‘In sum, the record overwhelmingly supports the Court’s conclusion that Map C exhibits substantial pro-Republican bias,’ the judge wrote in the 89-page ruling.
Some pollsters online have noted that the new map is primed to create a heavily liberal-leaning congressional district around Salt Lake City, which would give Democrats an opportunity to break Republicans’ stranglehold on Utah’s congressional delegation and would improve Democrats’ chances of winning a majority in the House next year.
The decision comes amid efforts by Republican-led states like Texas that have either instituted racist gerrymanders of their congressional districts at President Donald Trump’s urging or are taking steps to pursue such gerrymanders ahead of the midterms.
Political analyst Dave Wasserman summed up the most significant takeaway from Monday’s news:
Predictably, Utah Republicans aren’t taking the ruling well. In a social media post, the state party called for a repeal of Utah’s law against partisan gerrymanders, Proposition 4, and claimed Gibson’s refusal to allow them to gerrymander the districts amounts to “a direct threat to our constitutional order.”
Democrats from both houses of the state legislature released a joint statement saying they feel a “deep sense of hope and relief” after the ruling. “This is a win for every Utahn,” they said. “We took an oath to serve the people of Utah, and fair representation is the truest measure of that promise.”