Utah gets a little less red, says recently released report

Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.

The Cook Political Report’s latest Partisan Voter Index was recently released and Utah’s four solidly red congressional districts faded a little in the latest rankings.

The PVI rankings measure every congressional district’s performance over the last two presidential elections compared to the nation as a whole. For example, if a district is rated R+4, then the district was four points more Republican than the national average.

The “most Democratic” district in the country is Pennsylvania’s 3rd with a D+41 ranking. The “most Republican” seat belongs to Alabama’s 4th district at R+34.

Utah’s most Republican district is UT01, the seat held by freshman Rep. Blake Moore. It scored R+20 in the latest rankings, down from R+26 in 2017. It’s the 51′s “most Republican” district in the country.

Utah’s 3rd District is the right behind at R+17, which belongs to John Curtis, is down 8 points from four years ago. It’s the 75th most Republican.

Rep. Chris Stewart’s 2nd District is R+10, down from R+16. That’s good for the 132nd reddest seat in the nation.

The competitive 4th District is only R+6, which is a drop of 7 points from the last round of rankings. Rep. Burgess Owens’ seat is only the 172nd most Republican in terms of partisan advantage.

The previous round of ratings was artificially inflated due to Mitt Romney’s presence on the presidential ballot in 2012. This round is likely a little low given Donald Trump’s underperformance in 2016 and 2020.

These rankings also won’t reflect the new political lines Utah lawmakers will draw later this year during redistricting. Still, they can be used as a baseline comparison after the 2022 midterm elections.

The complete list is here.