Democrats propose new Utah congressional map during contentious hearing

SALT LAKE CITY — A legislative redistricting meeting devolved into partisan bickering Wednesday, as Republicans and Democrats sought to paint experts retained by the other side as biased.

The only two Democrats on the Legislative Redistricting Committee, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla and Rep. Doug Owens, presented a proposed congressional map of their own to add to the five maps commissioned by the GOP chairs of the committee earlier this week. This comes after a judge invalidated the state’s current map, launching a hurried process to create a new one before next year’s election.

While presenting the new map to the committee, Owens, D-Millcreek, said Democrats “strongly suspect” that Sean Trende, the expert hired by the GOP committee chairs to draw the majority’s proposals, incorporated partisan data into the process. That would be illegal under current redistricting law.

“We suspect there was a data set incorporated into the test that Dr. Trende applied, and we are unable to verify,” Owens said. “It’s as if we’re told to buy a car, and we can’t lift the hood and look.”

That remark upset Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, one of the co-chairs of the committee.

“You just demeaned us,” Sandall said loudly. “You just demeaned us to the public. … I will not have that. You called us somehow hiding or lying about everything that we’ve presented to say that our map, these maps, were not developed with any political data. You just misrepresented that, and that’s out of order.”

Owens apologized and clarified he didn’t think any committee member had knowledge of partisan data being used. Still, he and other Democrats have criticized the method by which Trende, a political analyst, planned to evaluate whether the maps unintentionally disfavor one political party.

Utah Legislative Redistricting Committee Proposed Maps 2025 by Simone Seikaly

 

That wasn’t the only heated part of Wednesday’s hearing, which lasted more than three hours. Republicans on the committee then went after the Democrats’ expert, political scientist Daniel Magleby, who was hired to help draw their map proposal.

Rep. Cal Roberts, R-Draper, specifically criticized Magleby’s personal background. Roberts brought up past social media posts from Magleby which “read like a left-wing activist.” In one of those posts, on Nov. 10, 2021, Magleby commented about the maps Utah lawmakers enacted after the 2020 census.

“This is straight out of the authoritarian playbook,” the tweet read. “Step 1: rig the system to systematically exclude the opposition. Step 2: gaslight the opposition and say that they are free to compete in the rigged system you set up. Shameful.”

Roberts asked Magleby if he thought GOP lawmakers were authoritarian, to which Magleby said he had “no memory of the tweet.”

After further questioning, Magleby added, “No, I don’t think that you’re authoritarians, and I have high hopes that you will do well by the people of Utah.”

Magleby told the committee the Democrats’ map began as a proposal by the Independent Redistricting Commission in 2021.

“The map itself only divides Salt Lake County into two districts,” he said. “It was developed by a nonpartisan, independent process and then adjusted to meet the standards laid forth in Utah law. When we evaluate the map, we find that it is consistent with what we would expect a neutral process to yield.”

But several Republicans criticized the map for dividing 13 cities and towns, which they said violated one of the key standards of Proposition 4 that directs lawmakers to minimize splitting up cities. However, Magleby countered that it is only one of several standards and is “not sacrosanct.”

How did we get here?

In 2018, Utah voters narrowly approved Proposition 4, which created an independent redistricting commission to redraw congressional maps and new standards to follow during that process.

However, lawmakers later altered Proposition 4 by making its role advisory, and they adopted new congressional maps in 2021 that ignored the commission’s suggestions. The following year, several groups sued, arguing that lawmakers violated Utahns’ rights to participate in free elections.

Last month, 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and invalidated the state’s congressional map. Gibson initially ordered lawmakers to draw a new one, but she later softened her ruling to state that the Legislature “may enact” a new redistricting plan. Lawmakers began working on that process earlier this month.

Public comment

During Wednesday’s hearing, the committee listened to another round of public comment as it did two days earlier. More than two dozen people shared mixed feelings on the various proposed maps and the circumstances surrounding the redistricting process.

“We need every member of Congress in this state to understand both urban and rural communities,” said Melanie Monestere, who lives in Summit County. “We don’t want our delegation to be cordoned off to a small and sequestered part of our state, but we rather want them to represent and understand the state as a whole.”

Jahn Curran, a Salt Lake City resident, bemoaned that he has never been represented by a Democrat while being a registered voter in Utah.

“You work for us,” Curran told lawmakers. “Please remember that. We want to be heard. We want to be represented.”

Some commenters criticized Proposition 4 and the judge’s ruling invalidating the state’s congressional maps, saying it violated the Utah Constitution that gives the Legislature power to draw congressional districts. Mike Carey, Salt Lake County Republican chairman, called it a “perilous precedent” to turn a “narrowly passed ballot measure into an untouchable edict.”

But Caleb Tippetts said he likes the idea of Utahns being able to change their government through ballot propositions.

“Do the people really have power to make changes to their government or not?” Tippets asked lawmakers, “Or is the power solely with you and we just hope that you guys listen?”

What’s next

The timeline established by the judge calls for all proposed congressional maps to be published by Thursday, followed by a 10-day public comment period. Lawmakers on the Legislative Redistricting Committee then plan to meet the morning of Oct. 6 to recommend one of the maps to the full Legislature, which will take a final vote during a special session later that day.

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s office has said any new maps need to be in place by Nov. 10 for use in the 2026 midterm elections.

But Republican legislators still hold out hope that the redistricting process will be halted and the current congressional map will be reinstated. Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Riverton, one of the redistricting committee co-chairs, said during Wednesday’s hearing that lawmakers planned to appeal this issue to the Utah Supreme Court and, if necessary, the U.S. Supreme Court.

You can view the proposed congressional maps and leave comments on the state’s website through Oct. 5.

Correction: An earlier version of this article contained a photo caption with the incorrect city listed for Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Riverton.