Utah Attorney General backs GOP initiative to repeal redistricting laws

The Utah Republican Party announced a campaign on Tuesday to repeal the state’s redistricting law known as Proposition 4 and to eliminate a new congressional map approved by the Legislature last week.

State GOP chair Rob Axson filed two documents — an initiative application and a referendum petition — with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Tuesday evening. The party will have until mid November to gather the required signatures for each.

The documents were signed by six sponsors: Utah Attorney General Derek Brown, former U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, Republican National Committeeman Brad Bonham, Cody Stewart, Carolyn Phippen and Axson.

“There is a groundswell of concern here in Utah from Utahns who do not like to see our state moving towards a direct democracy,” Axson said. “We are a republic.”

What will the GOP’s initiative do?

The GOP’s ballot initiative will seek to repeal Prop 4, another ballot initiative which voters approved by a slim majority in 2018 after a signature-gathering effort led by the nonprofit group Better Boundaries.

The Better Boundaries initiative prohibited partisan gerrymandering, outlined requirements for redistricting and created an independent commission to recommend congressional maps every 10 years.

Plaintiffs, including the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government, sued the state Legislature in 2020 after lawmakers removed or watered down the law’s requirements.

After the Utah Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that the Legislature’s changes to the Better Boundaries initiative was unconstitutional, 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson said lawmakers had to redraw the state’s congressional map under Prop 4 criteria.

Before passing a new map during an Oct. 6 special legislative session, however, lawmakers replaced the broad language of Prop 4 — which they said left maps to the whims of the judiciary — with three statistical tests.

If passed, the GOP’s initiative would remove “the language of Prop 4 from Utah code,” according to Axson, who said the Republican-dominant Legislature in the state had not told him to run the initiative.

The GOP’s initiative is an indirect, or legislative, initiative. It will open a bill file for the Utah Legislature to vote on instead of placing an issue on the November ballot.

The party has until Nov. 15 to obtain nearly 70,500 signatures in at least 26 out of 29 state Senate districts. The party must also hold at least seven public hearings in seven regions around the state to discuss the initiative.

What is the GOP’s referendum?

The second document filed by the GOP chair on Tuesday, a referendum application, will ask voters to toss out a bill passed by the Legislature last week that submitted a new congressional map to be approved by the courts.

The map, known as “Map 6,” was considered the most favorable to Republicans and was endorsed by the GOP. But Axson said the party wants to make a broader point about the political process.

“In no way, shape or form are we condemning the legislature. In fact, we’re trying to kind of double down on the fact that the legislature’s powers and authorities have been unnecessarily undermined by the courts,” Axson said.

In 2024, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature cannot amend or toss out changes to state law set by ballot initiatives, if the initiatives alter the structure of government.

Last month, 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson said the Legislature had done just that, and ordered state lawmakers to create new congressional maps on a truncated timeline.

Lawmakers lambasted the judgment while doing their best to comply. Gibson now has until Nov. 10 to green-light the Legislature’s proposals or pick an alternative map.

Meanwhile, the Legislature has promised to appeal their case to the Utah Supreme Court and, if necessary, the U.S. Supreme Court, where they would argue that the Utah Constitution gives exclusive authority over redistricting to the Legislature.

In a statement, Elizabeth Rasmussen, Executive Director of Better Boundaries, labeled the party’s actions as an “attempt to overturn the will of the people” by obstructing court-ordered reforms ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“The process voters created to remove partisanship from redistricting has been hijacked by the supermajority,” Rasmussen said. “We will use every tool available — in court, in the public square, and at the ballot box — to defend Prop 4, protect fair maps, and uphold the rule of law.”

The GOP will have 40 days from the special legislative session — which also falls on Nov. 15 — to gather nearly 150,000 signatures in at least 15 out of the state’s 29 state Senate districts in order to place the referendum on the ballot.