salt lake city — Utah New congressional mapwhich gives Democrats a high probability of picking up a U.S. House seat in the Salt Lake City district, is likely to stick around beyond this election cycle because a Republican-led initiative to repeal the anti-gerrymandering law failed to make the ballot in November.
The GOP effort, endorsed by President Donald Trump, aims to reverse a measure passed by Utah voters in 2018 that created an independent redistricting commission and banned the drawing of districts that intentionally favor one political party over another.
A state judge ruled that the Republican-led state Legislature violated those standards when it drew boundaries after the 2020 census split the Democratic stronghold of Salt Lake City between all four House districts. Judge Diana Gibson created a new map that gives Democrats an excellent chance of gaining a seat this year as they fight to regain control of the chamber.
Repealing the law would have allowed Republicans to enact a more favorable congressional map before the 2028 election. But the multimillion-dollar signature collection campaign fell below the threshold needed to qualify for the ballot this year after anti-gerrymandering advocates successfully had thousands of people remove their signatures, according to data released Thursday by election officials.
Better Boundaries, the nonprofit that led the campaign to remove the signature, celebrated the result on Thursday.
“A majority of Utah voters approved Proposition 4 in 2018, and we look forward to the day when Utah voters can finally choose their politicians, not the other way around,” said Executive Director Elizabeth Rasmussen.
Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Axon said efforts to repeal the law “are not over, they are just beginning.”
“We have serious concerns about the practices used by the opposition and continue to review the signature verification and removal process,” he said in a statement.
The unexpected wins for Democrats in deep-red Utah come as the parties engage in a national redistricting battle at the state level.
after Trump called out Republicans in Texas To redraw U.S. House districts in their favor last year, Democrats faced new congressional districts in California, and Redistricting battle It quickly spread to other states.
Republicans In MissouriThe states of North Carolina and Ohio have enacted new congressional maps that they believe can help them win seats in the midterm elections. Voters in Virginia The House of Representatives will decide in the April 21 elections whether to allow redistricting in the middle of the decade, which could help Democrats win more seats in the US House of Representatives. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called for a special legislative session on redistricting in Congress in mid-April.
Lawmakers in several other states, including Democratic-led Maryland Indiana is led by Republicans Kansas has also considered redistricting its congressional districts, but has not passed new maps.