Judge Rejects Utah’s Republican-Drawn Redistricting Map

A Utah judge on Monday tossed out a congressional map proposed by the state’s Republican legislature, a decision that Democrats welcomed ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

The judge, Dianna M. Gibson, instead adopted a map offered by a centrist coalition that had filed a lawsuit challenging the Republican proposal.

The ruling is a victory for Democrats in the nationwide battle over redistricting, as President Trump has increasingly pressured state-level Republicans to redraw congressional maps in his party’s favor. Last week, California voters approved Proposition 50, which redrew that state’s congressional boundaries to favor Democrats in what was hailed as a major win for the party ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Democrats face an uphill battle in Utah, where they have not won a U.S. House seat since 2018. Still, the party’s state lawmakers welcomed Judge Gibson’s ruling.

“We, the Utah House and Senate Democrats, feel a deep sense of hope and relief,” the state party said in a statement. “This is a win for every Utahn.”

The ruling comes three months after Judge Gibson ordered new maps to be drawn for Utah’s four congressional districts, saying the boundaries approved by the Republican-controlled State Assembly in 2021 violated the state constitution and were gerrymandered to favor them.

A coalition of centrist groups filed a lawsuit in 2022, accusing Republican lawmakers of ignoring voter-approved safeguards when they redrew the boundaries the previous year.

That map divided Salt Lake City — the state’s biggest metropolis and an island of Democratic support — into four districts that each had a Republican majority. The map was used in the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.

In July, when Judge Gibson ordered new maps to be drawn, state officials imposed a deadline of Nov. 10, so that the new boundaries could be established in time for the midterms.

The Republican state legislature went on to adopt a new map in October. But that map, Judge Gibson said on Monday, still failed to uphold the state’s constitution. Instead, facing the deadline, she had to adopt one of the plaintiffs’ proposed maps.

“The Court bears the unwelcome obligation to ensure that a lawful map is in place,” she wrote, saying she would accept the plaintiff’s “Map 1” as the standing congressional map for the state.

That map, which preserved the Democratic-leaning district surrounding Salt Lake City, “has neither the purpose nor effect of unduly favoring or disfavoring a political party,” Judge Gibson wrote. “It does not guarantee one-party control of the congressional delegation but rather accords with Utah’s natural political geography and electoral conditions.”

Republicans can still appeal Judge Gibson’s order. But Deirdre Henderson, a Republican and Utah’s lieutenant governor, said in a social media post that she would abide by it and would start establishing the boundaries of Map 1 for the 2026 midterm elections.