Utah’s congressional redistricting fight took another turn as a Republican-led attempt to undo the state’s anti-gerrymandering law failed to make the November ballot. The initiative would have opened the door for Republicans to seek a more favorable congressional map before the 2028 elections, but elections officials data released Thursday showed the campaign fell short of the signature threshold after advocates encouraged thousands of people to remove their signatures, according to the Associated Press.
The map at the center of the dispute was reshaped by court action after Utah’s Legislature redrew congressional district boundaries following the 2020 census. In the ruling described by AP, state judge Dianna Gibson found that the Legislature violated the standards set by Utah’s 2018 anti-gerrymandering measure by dividing Salt Lake City’s Democratic stronghold among all four U.S. House districts.
With the repeal effort off the November ballot, the newly drawn congressional configuration is expected to remain for the next federal election cycle, rather than being replaced through a statewide ballot vote this year. The initiative’s failure also undercuts the Republican strategy of rewriting congressional lines ahead of later contests, AP said, as Republicans and Democrats continue to battle over redistricting rules in multiple states.
The AP report said the GOP initiative was endorsed by President Donald Trump. The initiative sought to repeal the 2018 voter-approved Prop 4, which established an independent redistricting commission and banned drawing districts deliberately designed to favor one political party over another.
Republicans argued for reversing the anti-gerrymandering approach through the ballot initiative process, but the campaign’s qualification effort did not clear the procedural hurdle needed for voters to decide this year. After elections officials released data showing signature shortfalls, Better Boundaries—described by AP as the nonprofit that led the signature removal push—celebrated the outcome.
Elizabeth Rasmussen, the group’s executive director, said in a statement, “A majority of Utah voters approved Prop 4 in 2018, and we look forward to the day when Utah voters can finally pick their politicians, not the other way around.” Utah Republican Party Chair Rob Axson said the effort is “not over, but just beginning,” adding that Republicans have “significant concerns about the practices utilized by the opposition” and planned to continue reviewing how signatures were validated and removed.
The Utah dispute fits into a broader national redistricting struggle that has intensified since Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw U.S. House districts to their advantage last year. AP said Democrats responded by creating new congressional districts in California, and similar redistricting battles spread to other states as the parties sought maps they believe could improve their chances of winning House seats.
In AP’s account, Republicans have enacted new congressional maps in states including Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and voters in Virginia will decide April 21 on whether to authorize a mid-decade redistricting that could help Democrats. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, AP said, called a special legislative session on congressional redistricting for mid-April.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in several other states, including Democrat-led Maryland and Republican-led Indiana and Kansas, considered congressional redistricting but had not passed new maps by the time of AP’s report. For Utah, the immediate implication is that court-drawn districts reflecting Gibson’s ruling remain the governing framework as Democrats look to compete in the Salt Lake City area under the revised map.
As the fight over ballot access and district lines continues elsewhere, Utah Republicans and Democrats now face a different timeline than they sought, with the initiative that could have repealed the anti-gerrymandering law delayed past this election cycle.