After nearly a decade-long battle for a fair congressional district map, Utahns have successfully secured the opportunity for fair representation ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Utahns have been fighting since at least 2018 for fair voting maps and fair representation. Every time Utah voters score a victory in this fight, state lawmakers erect new hurdles in an attempt to maintain their ability to gerrymander the state’s congressional map at the expense of Utahns.
But in the latest victory for voters, Utah’s Third District Court ruled that the Utah Legislature’s recently proposed congressional map is a partisan gerrymander and ordered a fair map in place for the 2026 election.
The map was proposed by the League of Women Voters Utah (LWVUT), Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG), and six individual Utah voters represented by Campaign Legal Center and co-counsel.
How did we get here?
In 2018, Utahns passed Proposition 4, a ballot initiative that established the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission and included a set of neutral criteria that all redistricting maps in Utah must follow. Proposition 4 also banned partisan gerrymandering.
Despite this voter-led victory, in 2020, the Utah Legislature overruled the will of voters by repealing Proposition 4 and later passing its own gerrymandered congressional district map.
In response, Campaign Legal Center, on behalf of the LWVUT, MWEG and several individual voters, sued to reinstate Proposition 4 and challenge the unfair map.
Why is this such a big victory for Utahns?
Following a series of court rulings and multiple victories for Campaign Legal Center and our clients, on August 25, 2025, the District Court ruled that the Legislature violated the Utah Constitution when it repealed Proposition 4, and as a result also struck down the gerrymandered 2021 congressional map.
The District Court’s ruling reinstated Proposition 4 as the law in Utah, and the Court set out a timeframe for the adoption of a new congressional map to be drawn in compliance with Proposition 4.
In response to the Court’s ruling, the Legislature passed a new gerrymandered map, and it did not comply with Proposition 4’s neutral redistricting requirements.
Our clients, the plaintiffs, submitted two maps to the District Court that follow all the standards and requirements in Proposition 4. Map 1 comes from a set of 10,000 maps produced by an algorithm programmed to follow Proposition 4’s criteria. Map 2 is a “least change” map that alters the Legislature’s map to bring it into compliance with Proposition 4.
No partisan data was used to create either map, and both maps contain only one instance of a district boundary dividing a city — resolving legal issues in the Legislature’s map. Both of the plaintiffs' map submissions comply with Proposition 4, including the law’s partisan gerrymandering prohibition; the Legislature's map does not.
After hearing testimony from experts and plaintiffs in support of the plaintiffs’ submitted maps, a state district court judge ordered the implementation of map 1 submitted by the plaintiffs ahead of the 2026 elections.
As the legal process to determine a new congressional map compliant with Proposition 4 proceeded, Campaign Legal Center was forced to go to court two more times on behalf of our clients to block attempts by the Legislature to undermine the fair redistricting guidelines established in Proposition 4.
One attempt — a new, renewed effort to get the Legislature to repeal Proposition 4 — was withdrawn due to our filing. The other, S.B. 1011, was the Legislature’s attempt to enact new partisan gerrymandering metrics that would have had the effect of requiring partisan gerrymandering in Utah. The Court recently struck down the law for undermining the purpose of Proposition 4’s reforms as outlined in our filing.
What’s next for fair maps in Utah?
Thanks to the perseverance and dedication of our clients, Utahns can vote in the 2026 midterms with the confidence that they have a genuine opportunity to elect members of Congress who best represent their interests.
Their voices will be heard, and, with the end of gerrymandering, all votes will count equally.
Our work doesn’t stop here. As our years-long fight in Utah demonstrates, Campaign Legal Center is committed to pursuing solutions that give every voter an equal opportunity to make their voices heard. We will strongly advocate for fair maps in court, in state legislatures and the halls of Congress. Join us in this fight today.
