RED TO BLUE: UTAH’S NEW CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS
It’s official: Utah will have a new Congressional map in 2026.
Minutes before the November 10th deadline, Utah Judge Dianna Gibson made her redistricting ruling: Utah’s Congressional map for the 2026 election must be changed from the districts approved by the legislature in 2021 to the ones submitted by the plaintiffs as part of the redistricting lawsuit.
Among the plaintiffs are the League of Women Voters of Utah, Mormon Women for Ethical Government, the Campaign Legal Center, and a handful of Salt Lake County voters. Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson, whose office controls Utah’s elections, tweeted that she would comply with Judge Gibson’s order, meaning these districts will likely be official.
How did we get here? What was Prop 4, and how did Better Boundaries break Utah’s redistricting process? And, most importantly, what does this ruling mean for the nationwide redistricting battle and the 2026 midterms?
Let’s rewind 15 years… Fresh off the 2010 census, Utah was awarded a 4th Congressional seat as a result of its booming population growth. The legislature drew and approved the map below, creating 3 large Republican-leaning districts and one district centered in Salt Lake County that would become one of the most competitive districts in the country:
The first election using this map was in 2012, which saw Utahns elect 3 Republicans and one Democrat… with incumbent Democrat Jim Matheson defeating Republican challenger Mia Love by less than 800 votes.
Matheson declined to run for reelection in 2014 and his seat was flipped by Love, who defeated Democrat Doug Owens by more than 7,000 votes. Love won reelection in 2016, easily defeating Owens in an electoral rematch.
2018 is where things start to get interesting… this is where a group known as “Better Boundaries” enters the scene. Chaired by former Democrat Salt Lake City mayor Ralph Becker, Better Boundaries managed to get an initiative that would become known as “Prop 4” onto the November ballot.
Prop 4 aimed to do 2 things:
First, it would create an “independent commission” that would draw Utah’s congressional and legislative districts and submit them to the state legislature for consideration. The legislature could vote to reject these maps and draw their own, but they would be required to provide an explanation before they could draw their own maps.
Second, it would implement stricter guidelines to prevent maps from purposefully carving up cities, towns, and counties.
Utah Disclosure Reports reveal some interesting details about Better Boundaries. Originally filed as Utahns for Responsive Government, the organization’s 2018 leadership included former Chicago-based lawyer Catherine Kanter and then-business consultant Blake Moore.
Better Boundaries raised $2.2 million in 2018, with the vast majority of those funds coming from out-of-state donors. In fact, of that $2.2 million, only $620,000 would come from Utah donors. They even got the most annoying character from the office to film an ad in support of Prop 4.
Those out-of-state funds would prove to be a great investment for those donors seeking to influence Utah’s elections as the initiative would narrowly pass in November 2018. Mia Love was also defeated by Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams by less than 700 votes, flipping the district back to Democrat control.
Weeks before the election, in October of 2018, Governor Gary Herbert appointed Dianna Gibson to the Third District Court of Utah. Her nomination was approved by the Republican-controlled State Senate and she took the bench in January 2019.
A few months later, Catherine Kanter was appointed by Democrat Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson to be deputy mayor of regional operations, an unelected position that would come with a $119,000 salary and nearly $40,000 in benefits.
In July 2019, longtime Utah Republican Congressman Rob Bishop announced his intention to retire from Congress, leaving one of America’s safest red districts open for the first time in nearly 20 years. More than 10 Republicans declared their candidacy, with Blake Moore joining the race in February 2020 despite living outside of the district’s boundaries.
Moore would emerge victorious in a crowded GOP primary and easily win the general election. Burgess Owens was also able to defeat Ben McAdams and flip the 4th district back to Republican control, securing total GOP control of the federal delegation.
Earlier that year, the Republican-controlled legislature passed SB 200, relegating Prop 4’s newly established independent commission to an advisory role. The legislature began drawing the new Congressional map in the 2021 session, using data from the 2020 census and creating 4 reliably red districts that each averaged about 60% or more Republican.
This map was used for the 2022 and 2024 elections which saw the Republicans secure all 4 seats with relative ease:
However, in July 2024, the Utah Supreme Court unanimously ruled the legislature overstepped by passing SB 200, stating that ballot initiatives that alter government functions cannot be undone by the state legislature without compelling evidence.
This opened the door for Judge Gibson’s ruling a year later in August 2025 that the districts must be redrawn under Prop 4’s rules. Gibson ordered the legislature and plaintiffs to submit new maps that she would ultimately pick from.
That brings us back to November 10, when Gibson announced her decision to implement the plaintiff’s map, which creates 3 Republican districts and 1 heavily Democrat district centered in Salt Lake City.
So, what does this mean for 2026? Well, if you’re a political consultant, it means there’s going to be a lot of money to be made in Utah in 2026.
These new districts create dramatic overlaps between the previous ones.
Utah’s 1st District shrinks to be centered in Salt Lake City, while the 2nd district moves north.
This splits the rest of the state between the 3rd and 4th districts, with the 3rd becoming one of the largest districts in the country. It also sets up a likely inter-party matchup between Celeste Maloy and Mike Kennedy for control of the 3rd district, since this new map places Alpine and Cedar City in the same district.
It also opens the door for Ben McAdams to return to Congress, as McAdams has already declared his intention to run for the new deep-blue 1st District.
Nationwide, it gives the Democrats a better shot at retaking the House in 2026. Currently, Republicans hold the House of Representatives by just 6 seats, and both parties are pushing to redraw maps in states they control to give themselves whatever advantage they can get heading into these midterm elections.
Judge Gibson’s ruling creates 1 likely pickup for the Democrats in Utah, while California voters approved an initiative earlier this month to create 3 to 5 new Democrat districts. Republicans on the other hand have managed to draw 5 new potential seats in Texas, one in Missouri, and one in North Carolina.
With less than a year until the 2026 midterms, Utah’s new map makes the math even more complicated for Republicans as they seek to hold their already slim majority.
