WASHINGTON — Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, warned against using independent commissions to draw congressional boundaries — making his stance clear on the same day a Utah judge is expected to rule on a major decision that could force the Beehive State to draw new maps for next year’s midterm elections.
In a lengthy post on X, Lee contended that independent redistricting commissions — a method used in eight states to determine congressional boundaries — are used as a political weapon to usurp the will of the state legislature and whichever party holds majority control. For Utah, he argued, that means a third-party panel would be used to give Democrats an edge in an otherwise Republican-only decision.
“Almost anything promoted as an ‘independent commission’ is often a strategy to give Democrats an edge they can’t win through fair elections,” Lee wrote. “This is especially true for legislative redistricting, the process of redrawing electoral district boundaries.”
Using an independent commission to redraw maps opens the door for “even larger disruptions,” Lee argues, that would hand the Democratic Party wins in states that would otherwise be rejected by Republican voters.
“We the people need to halt this trend. To do so, we must first grasp what these independent commissions truly represent,” Lee said. “In a state like Utah, they’re essentially a mechanism for the left to grab power they can’t earn through democratic elections.”
Lee’s comments come as Utah 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson is expected to rule on Monday whether the state legislature illegally gerrymandered the congressional boundaries currently in use.
Voting rights groups filed a lawsuit against the Utah Legislature in 2022, accusing lawmakers of unfairly repealing an independent redistricting commission that was approved by voters and instead established boundaries that diluted Democratic voters. The map did so by splitting Salt Lake County between the four congressional districts, the lawsuit alleges.
If Gibson rules in the voting groups’ favor, the court has scheduled what is known as a status conference on Friday to discuss next steps.
A decision to redraw the maps is likely to result in an appeal from the state legislature, sending the matter to the Utah Supreme Court. If that fails, the challenge could even reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
If that happens, it’s unclear whether Utah could get new maps before the 2026 midterm elections next November. Boundaries for the state must be established by Nov. 1 so that congressional candidates can officially file in January.
The decision comes as the country braces for a potential all-out redistricting war ignited by new maps proposed in Texas and California.
Texas approved redrawn boundaries for its congressional map last week that could flip five seats in Republicans’ favor, prompting California Gov. Gavin Newsom to buck the state’s independent commission to propose a new map of its own. California’s new map would include five additional districts that favor Democrats, possibly neutralizing any GOP gains in the Lone Star State.
California’s map still must be approved by voters during the state’s special election in November.
Leaders in other states have begun to publicly consider whether they’d redraw maps before the November elections next year, during which control of Congress will be up for grabs. Meanwhile, some Republican lawmakers have warned against redrawing maps in any state — arguing it sets a dangerous precedent.
“If Texas does it, California is going to do it, Illinois is going to do it — and Illinois is going to do it worse, in favor of the Democrats, and all of a sudden it’s just a free-for-all,” Utah Rep. Blake Moore told the Deseret News in an interview earlier this month. “Every two years, we’re going to have redistricting going on constantly instead of the current norm of at least once every 10 years. It’s not a perfect system. There’s bias constantly involved in this. So yeah, I don’t agree with mid-decade redistricting.”
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