Utah Republicans just let Democrats steal a seat they could never win

A Utah judge just turned a safe Republican congressional seat into a near-guaranteed Democrat seat — and she did it in a state controlled top to bottom by Republicans. How does that happen? A generation of weak Republicans in the elected branches handed liberals control of the judicial branch and gave them the ballot initiative system they needed to take over the state piece by piece.

Democrats can’t win statewide office in half the country, so they’ve turned ballot initiatives into their weapon of choice. Pollsters craft soothing messaging, activists gather signatures, and voters — thinking they’re supporting neutrality — unknowingly approve measures that shift power to Democrats.

Supermajority states serve as a control group. The problem isn’t power; the problem is the GOP’s refusal to wield it.

The “nonpartisan redistricting commission” scam remains their most effective tool. These commissions always promise fairness, and they always produce more Democratic seats.

Utah proved the point in 2018, when 66% of voters approved Proposition 4, even though most Utahns don’t want Democrats running the state. The same tactic produced Medicaid expansion and marijuana legalization. None of these measures would have survived the legislature — but they passed once voters encountered them in isolation.

James Madison warned against pure democracy for this exact reason. A republic draws authority from the “great body of the society,” not from a small faction or self-appointed elite. Ballot-initiative commissions flip that logic on its head. They let unelected actors redraw power for themselves.

Here comes the judge

After the 2020 census, Utah’s legislature drew a fourth Republican congressional seat, as the state constitution requires. Democrats and their allies at the League of Women Voters sued to nullify the map and force a Salt Lake-centered Democrat seat.

In August, Third District Judge Dianna Gibson obliged. She declared the legislature’s map unconstitutional because, in her view, it ignored Prop. 4 — even though the constitution explicitly vests redistricting power in the legislature. She ordered a new process for 2026 and told both sides to submit maps.

The GOP-controlled legislature complied, proposing a compromise map and passing SB 1011 to impose “partisan fairness” tests on future redistricting so the commission couldn’t hand Democrats a permanent advantage.

Gibson ignored all of it. On Nov. 10, she tossed the legislative map, sidelined SB 1011, and adopted the map drawn by the very activist groups suing the state — the same groups that engineered Prop. 4.

Plainly unconstitutional

Nothing in Utah’s constitution supports what Gibson did. Article IX, Section 1 states that the legislature “shall divide the state” into congressional districts. A commission cannot do it. A judge cannot do it. Activists certainly cannot do it.

Yet Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson signed off on Gibson’s map, even though state law required her to certify only lawful maps. That decision reflects a deeper problem: Too many Utah Republicans treat constitutional violations as minor inconveniences and concede ground to Democrats who never reciprocate.

Democrats defend Gibson’s ruling by citing Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (2015), when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reinterpreted the word “legislature” to include ballot initiatives. Even if you grant that tortured reading of the U.S. Constitution, Utah’s constitution is far more explicit. Only the legislature draws maps.

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Make impeachment great again

At the federal level, impeachment has become an empty threat. Senate math makes convictions nearly impossible. But red states with Republican supermajorities don’t face that obstacle.

Utah’s legislature holds a 61-14 majority in the House and a 22-6 majority in the Senate. Rep. Trevor Lee (R-Utah) on my show last week called for the impeachment of both Judge Gibson and Lt. Gov. Henderson for violating the state constitution. Republicans have the votes to do it — and the constitutional duty to rein in judicial usurpation.

Other states have shown it can be done. In 2018, West Virginia impeached all five members of its Supreme Court for corruption and removed them. Red states such as Oklahoma, Montana, Missouri, and South Carolina face the same problem Utah now faces: liberal judges empowered by timid Republicans.

A perilous path

Utah proves a point conservatives hate to admit. Republicans in Washington often claim they can’t implement the party’s agenda because they lack power. But in Utah, Republicans hold all the power — and still refuse to use it. They allow commissions to override them, courts to embarrass them, and Democrats to seize ground they could never win through elections.

Supermajority states serve as a control group. The problem isn’t power; the problem is the GOP’s refusal to wield it.

Unless Republicans act with conviction, Utah will follow Colorado’s path. Democrats chipped away at Colorado one institution at a time while Republicans shrugged. Now Colorado is a Democratic Party fortress.

Utah is heading down the same trail — unless Republicans use the constitutional tools they still possess.