Lawmakers voted Tuesday to postpone the filing deadline for congressional candidates for next year’s midterm elections, as Republican lawmakers scramble to buy time during which they hope the Utah Supreme Court will reinstate congressional boundaries favoring Republicans in place of a court-ordered map that could yield a Democratic seat.
The move to delay the deadlines will give lawmakers roughly two months to appeal a Utah district court judge’s ruling and marks the latest twist in an 18-month legal battle at a time when Republicans and Democrats are nationwide are redrawing maps and clawing for every advantage ahead of the 2026 midterms that will determine who controls the U.S. House of Representatives.
Additionally, Republican lawmakers passed a resolution condemning the Utah Supreme Court’s ruling last year in the redistricting lawsuit, 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson’s refusal to adopt a map submitted by the Legislature and “rejects” the map Gibson chose.
House Majority Leader Casey Snider, R-Paradise, the sponsor of the resolution, accused Gibson of ignoring Utah’s Constitution and injecting politics into the process.
“How can we trust the judiciary that accuses us of gerrymandering and being biased when they create the most gerrymandered and extreme district that the state has ever seen?” Snider said Tuesday night. “How can we trust the judiciary when they manipulate timelines, they take away the people’s right to appeal to their very body through gamesmanship and running out the clock?”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise, speaks on Utah courts during a special session at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025.
But Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, pointed out that the Legislature’s map the judge rejected was more biased to favor Republicans than 99.94% of 10,000 maps drawn using neutral redistricting criteria.
And Democratic Rep. Grant Miller of Salt Lake City noted that in the aftermath of Gibson’s ruling, the judge received threats of violence and the resolution condemning the judiciary undermines respect for the courts.
“We cannot have people take matters of political significance into their own hands,” Miller said. “The temperature at this time in this state and in this country is too hot. We have to respect the independence of the judiciary.”
The resolution has no binding effect, but demonstrates the GOP lawmakers’ rage over the decision.
It passed the House 54-16 and the Senate 19-7.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) People gather at the Utah Capitol prior to a special session on redistricting and the anti-public union bill in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025.
The ongoing legal battle stems from the Legislature’s decision in 2020 to gut the Better Boundaries initiative, also known as Proposition 4, approved by voters two years earlier. The initiative created an independent redistricting commission and banned partisan gerrymandering.
Last year, the five Republican-appointed justices on the Utah Supreme Court unanimously ruled that undoing a citizen ballot measure renders the constitutional right to the initiative meaningless and sent the case back to Gibson to determine if the Legislature had a “compelling” interest in doing so.
In August, Gibson ruled lawmakers did not meet the standard, reinstated Proposition 4 and determined that since the map lawmakers enacted in 2021 did not comply with Proposition 4, it could not be used in the 2026 election, giving legislators about two months to adopt a new map.
The map they submitted, however, also did not meet Proposition 4’s standards, Gibson ruled, and she chose a map submitted by the plaintiffs in the case that created a northern Salt Lake County congressional district that favors Democrats.
Republican lawmakers were furious, calling Gibson’s actions judicial overreach. and some even threaten to impeach her. Gibson received threats in the wake of the ruling and the Administrative Office of the Courts issued a rare statement condemning threats of violence against judges.
Legislative leaders have vowed to appeal — although they have yet to do so.
With the deadline to have the congressional boundaries in place so candidates can begin filing to run for the seats already passed, the change to the filing deadlines from early January to March 9-13 will create space for the Republican lawmakers’ appeal to the Utah Supreme Court and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Congressional candidates who want to gather signatures to qualify for the ballot will be able to begin collecting them before officially filing their declarations of candidacy. And, since it’s unknown what the boundaries might end up being, candidates can gather the 7,000 required signatures from voters anywhere in the state.
The change to the filing dates only applies to candidates for Congress and no other offices.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, in the Senate Chamber during a special session at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025.
Laura Eyi, spokesperson for Mormon Women for Ethical Government — who, along with the League of Women Voters, sued to block the Legislature’s maps — said the plaintiffs remain confident the outcome won’t change.
“The Legislature talked about appealing to the Utah Supreme Court and the Utah Supreme Court and the district court have ruled in favor of Utah voters and fair maps thus far,” she said. “I suspect they will rule in our favor again.”
Late Friday, Gibson rejected the most recent request by legislative attorneys to reverse her position and allow the congressional boundaries that have been in place since 2021 to govern the 2026 elections.
Gibson shot that down in a 12-page ruling in which she said her earlier opinions were sound, their motion from the Legislature “merely repeats previously rejected arguments,” and there was no basis or justification to allow the unlawful 2021 map to remain in effect.
The prospect of a new district with up to a 17-percentage point Democratic advantage has touched off a stampede of candidates vying for the seat, including former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams, state Sens. Kathleen Riebe and Nate Blouin, and former Salt Lake City Council member Derek Kitchen.
Blouin used debate on one of the bills to decry the Legislature and special interest groups trying to protect their own power while Utahns struggle to put food on the table, leading to a testy exchange with Senate President J. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, who ruled his comments out of order and pounded his gavel several times until Blouin relented and voted “No.”
Before the special session began, about 300 people rallied to preserve the map Gibson chose, holding signs with letters spelling out “Uphold Prop 4 Fair Maps.” They also sang Christmas carols, like one to the tune of Jingle Bells with a chorus of, “Hear our voice! Hear our voice! Hear us as we say: Put a stop to power grabs! We’re fighting back today!”
Despite all of the turmoil surrounding Utah’s redistricting process, that independent redistricting commission remains overwhelmingly popular with voters, according to a recent poll commissioned by The Sutherland Institute, a conservative think-tank.
The survey found that 85% of registered voters want an independent commission involved in the redistricting process — 40% want the commission’s role to be advisory, while 45% say the Legislature should have to choose from maps recommended by the commission.
Only 15% say the Legislature should be allowed to draw the boundaries on its own.
The poll of 623 registered voters by Y2 Analytics was conducted between Sept. 24 and Oct. 6 — before Gibson chose the new map — and has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.