In 2018 Utah voters passed Proposition 4, an initiative banning partisan gerrymandering. The legislature's map had split Salt Lake County, the state's Democratic population centre, four ways, so that each piece was outvoted by the rest of the state: four safe Republican seats. On 10 November 2025 a state judge ruled that the map violated Prop 4 and adopted an alternative that keeps Salt Lake County almost entirely in one district.

The court fight

Republican legislators appealed. The Utah Supreme Court upheld the remedial map, and in 2026 a three-judge federal panel declined to block it, finding the challenge unlikely to succeed and the election too close to change the lines. The map is in force: three Republican-leaning districts and one Democratic-leaning district centred on Salt Lake County, which drew a crowded field of candidates.

In the game's terms

The old map is cracking, the second lesson in How to gerrymander, applied to a city: slice it like a pizza so every wedge is outvoted by countryside. The court ordered the opposite, packing: wall the city into a district of its own. One seat changed hands without a single voter moving.

Why it matters

Of ten states that redrew before the 2026 midterms, Utah is the only one where the lines got fairer. It happened because voters had written an anti-gerrymandering rule into state law seven years earlier, and a court enforced it. The federal courts will not police partisan maps; state courts and state constitutions still can.

Try it yourself

Slice Salt Lake City four ways for the Republicans, then keep it whole for the Democrats, and count the seats each way.

Salt Lake City, UT (2016)
Play as RepublicansPlay as Democrats

Sources

  • CNN: Judge adopts Utah congressional map that creates a Democrat-leaning district for 2026 (11 Nov 2025)
  • Deseret News: Federal judges hear Utah redistricting case over court-ordered congressional map (18 Feb 2026)
  • NBC News: Federal court clears way for Utah's new congressional map to take effect (2026)
  • Democracy Docket: Utah Supreme Court upholds fairer map for midterm elections, rejects GOP appeal (2026)
  • Deseret News: New congressional map means fierce GOP primary elections in Utah (9 Mar 2026)