Heading into the crucial 2026 midterm elections, national Democrats see Utah’s new Salt Lake County congressional district as a toehold that they hope to leverage to move the Beehive State from Republican red to purple.

“We are really excited about what’s happening here” with the new district, Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in an interview Sunday.

“Utah’s one of the fastest-growing states in the country, one of the youngest states, with lots of really interesting population and demographic shifts that give us reason to believe that Utah is one of the emerging battlegrounds for the Democratic Party,” Martin said.

Utah Republican Party Chair Rob Axson said Monday that Martin was taking an undeserved “victory lap.”

“The reality is there was nothing that was done by him or the Democrat Party to create this opportunity,” Axson said. “It was handed to them by judges who, in my opinion, overstepped their role.”

The 1st District seat is the product of years of litigation over the Republican-dominated Utah Legislature’s gerrymandering of the congressional boundaries in 2021, which the court ruled was a violation of the 2018 voter-approved ballot initiative, Proposition 4.

The district adopted by the courts puts Republicans at a disadvantage as much as 17 percentage points. Seven Democrats have filed to run for the seat.

Republicans currently control the U.S. House of Representatives by a slim four-seat margin, and Martin, who was in town for a fundraiser in Ogden Sunday night, said Utah’s new seat is one of many the party believes it should be able to flip.

The real goal, Martin said, is “building a durable majority.” Over the last three decades, control of the House has swung back and forth between the parties and “what you’ve seen, as a result of that, is there has not been a lot of things getting done and, especially in this very highly polarized environment, not a lot of real legislation passing.”

Building that “durable majority” could get harder, though, as red states like Texas and Florida gerrymander their congressional districts, prompting Democratic-held states like California and Virginia to respond in kind.

After the next census, several Democratic states are expected to lose seats to the rapidly growing states in the South and West — including Utah, which should get a fifth member in Congress for the 2032 election cycle.

Texas could gain four new seats and Florida three, while California may lose four and New York is likely to lose two, according to projections from the Brennan Center for Justice.

“As a hockey guy, you have to skate to where the puck will be, not where the puck is,” Martin said. “Utah is where the puck will be. … That is why CD1 is so important. Now you have an anchor in the state Democratic Party and it allows us to start building … in other parts of the state.”

Axson said that he is confident the GOP remains more aligned with Utah values, and expects that will continue.

“They would have to dramatically change [their message], and when there’s an opportunity for the Democrats in this state, they instead decide to try to go and be like [New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani and lean into the Bernie Sanders [policies],” Axson said. “I think that is out of step for the vast majority of Utahns, including the vast majority of Democrats in the state of Utah.”

The efforts by the Republican-backed Utahns For Representative Government could complicate that plan if they succeed in their effort of repealing Proposition 4 and restoring the GOP-dominated Legislature’s ability to gerrymander future boundaries.

Martin said the effect of gerrymandering goes beyond denying fair representation, it also decreases voter turnout. In his home state of Minnesota, the courts have drawn the boundaries for more than 50 years. The result, he said, has been competitive districts and the highest voter turnout in the country because “people believe that their vote, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, is going to matter.”

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