Democrats cheer gerrymandering ruling, as Utah Republicans eye appeal

Backers of Utah’s Better Boundaries initiative hailed Judge Dianna Gibson’s ruling rejecting the Republican Legislature’s proposed congressional boundaries and picking a map drawn by the plaintiffs as a victory for voters, while Republicans in the state seethed over what they viewed as judicial overreach.

“Thank you to everyone who hasn’t given up on this fight. You stood up against the elite politicians, deep-rooted special interests and money,” said Elizabeth Rasmussen, executive director of the Better Boundaries group that supported the 2018 voter-passed initiative to ban partisan gerrymandering.

“[We] took this fight to court and affirmed what we have always known — that we have the right to alter our government, we have a right to fair representation, and that our Constitution guarantees those protections,” she said. “You proved that when Utahns act together, we can overcome even the strongest opposition. We waited eight years for this moment, and today, that wait was worth it.”

Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Axson, however, saw it very differently, saying it reflects “the arrogance of a judge playing king from the bench” and Gibson’s ruling plunges the state into a constitutional crisis.

Axson said the judge elevated her own power above that of voters and “now claims the authority to dictate Utah’s future.”

Republicans are attempting to gather nearly 141,000 valid signatures from voters to try to repeal Proposition 4 — the 2018 Better Boundaries initiative banning gerrymandering — in next year’s election. In the meantime, Axson said, “We invite Judge Gibson to leave the bench and run for the legislature to pursue her policy preferences.”

In a joint statement Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, and Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said Gibson “set aside the Utah Constitution and the voice of Utah voters, selecting a map drawn behind closed doors by out-of-state advocacy groups.”

The plaintiffs were represented by the Campaign Legal Center, which is based in Washington, D.C., and has represented plaintiffs in voting rights and redistricting cases across the country.

“The judge disregarded the Constitution to select a clearly gerrymandered map,” the Republican leaders said. “Judges are meant to uphold the law as written, not rewrite it to serve political ends.”

Gov. Spencer Cox echoed the legislators’ frustration.

“While I respect the Court’s role in our system, no judge, and certainly no advocacy group, can usurp that constitutional authority,” he said. “For this reason, I fully support the Legislature appealing the Court’s decision.”

The GOP leaders did not say if they planned to appeal Gibson’s decision. Previously, they’ve disagreed with Gibson’s decision to discard the boundaries that had been in place since 2021 and said they intended to appeal to the Utah Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Utah Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled unanimously against the Legislature during the course of the lawsuit.

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, whose office oversees Utah elections, has said she will implement Gibson’s chosen map unless it is overturned on appeal.

Just before midnight Monday, Gibson issued her much-anticipated 89-page decision. In it, she ruled:

Republican legislators attempted to undermine Proposition 4 by passing a series of tests that “effectively mandates the practice [of gerrymandering] by ensuring that only maps favoring the majority party.” Gibson struck down those tests.

The map adopted by the GOP lawmakers is such an “extreme outlier” that only six out of 10,000 neutrally drawn maps would favor Republicans as much as the Legislature’s proposed boundaries.

The Legislature’s proposed districts were drawn using partisan data, which is prohibited by Proposition 4, and did not comply with other standards in the law.

Because the map does not comply with Proposition 4, it could not be used in the 2026 election. Instead, she chose a map submitted by the plaintiffs that creates a heavily Democratic district in the northern part of Salt Lake County.

Emma Petty Addams, co-executive director of Mormon Women for Ethical Government — which joined with the League of Women Voters and several residents to challenge the gutting of the Better Boundaries initiative — called Gibson’s decision the “culmination of work by countless citizens” and not a partisan victory.

“Today we see that when people come together across party and ideological lines, we can exercise great political power — not partisan power to control or win at all costs — but principled power that values the opinions of our neighbors and desires systems and processes to encourage healthy disagreement and debate,” Addams said. “Such principled power is the pathway to representation.”

Democrats see an opening to send a member of the state’s minority party to Congress.

Utah Democratic Party Chairman Brian King said since voters approved the initiative in 2018, Republicans have fought “tooth and nail to prevent the peoples’ voice from being heard on this issue.”

“It’s clear that the GOP is terrified of voters actually getting a voice in who represents them in Congress,” King said, adding that Republicans are “abandoning everyday Utahns in favor of Donald Trump and wealthy special interests. … With this new map, Utahns will hold them accountable next November.”

It marks the first time in a quarter century that Democrats will have a district in Utah that favors the party. The last Democrat to win a congressional race was Rep. Ben McAdams, who was elected in a Republican-leaning district in 2018 and lost two years later. McAdams has notified supporters that he will announce his candidacy for the new seat on Thursday. State Sen. Kathleen Riebe is also interested in running in the new district.

Democratic National Committee Chairperson Ken Martin said in a statement that Republicans gerrymandered the Utah map because they knew they were losing power in Utah. “Every seat counts,” Martin said, “and Democrats everywhere are fired up and ready to take back the House in the midterms in 2026.”

Republicans currently hold a six-seat majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, with one Democrat waiting to be sworn in. Red states like Texas are redrawing their boundaries to secure more seats and shore up their majority, while Democrats are retaliating in kind.

Gibson’s decision only impacts the state’s four congressional seats. The plaintiffs did not challenge the state legislative seats or school board districts. But Dave Reymann, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the congressional case, said that could happen — provided the GOP’s initiative to repeal Proposition 4 isn’t successful.

“That’s not part of our case,” Reymann said. “I can just say generally that, because Proposition 4 is the law of the land, and Proposition 4 allows for challenges to, not just the congressional maps, but all maps.”