A Utah judge delivered a major victory to Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, striking down a Republican-drawn congressional map and ordering the implementation of new district boundaries that create a Democratic-leaning seat in the traditionally conservative state.

Utah District Judge Dianna Gibson ruled late Monday that the map approved by the GOP-led legislature “unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats.” The decision invalidates the existing map, which had given Republicans control of all four of the state’s congressional districts, Fox News reports.

Utah has become the latest flashpoint in the ongoing national redistricting battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other, as both parties maneuver to shape the congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

The legal showdown in Utah — a state Trump won by nearly 22 percentage points in last year’s presidential race — began with a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government.

Gibson’s ruling required Utah lawmakers to draft a new congressional map, which the legislature approved last month.

The judge ordered the new map to comply with a 2018 ballot initiative passed by Utah voters that sought to reform redistricting standards and prevent the drawing of districts that favor one political party, a practice known as gerrymandering.

Gibson ultimately rejected the Republican-drawn map and instead adopted one of two proposed by the plaintiffs, which keeps nearly all of the densely populated, Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County within a single congressional district. The previous map divided the county among all four of Utah’s districts.

Gibson had pledged to issue a ruling by Monday, the same day Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said a final congressional map must be in place to be used in next year’s elections. Democrats have not held a congressional seat in Utah since the current map took effect at the start of the decade, Fox reported.

“The DNC applauds the decision to choose a fair, impartial map that reflects the diversity and ideological makeup of the state. Utah Republicans gerrymandered the maps because they knew they were losing power in the state. Republicans doubled down when they chose to submit another gerrymandered map, but today, they were once again thwarted by impartial Courts,” Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin argued in a statement.

Martin vowed that “Democrats will continue to fight for fair maps in Utah, regardless of what Donald Trump and Utah Republicans try next.”

Republican lawmakers, who contend that Gibson lacks the legal authority to impose a congressional map not approved by the state legislature, sharply criticized the ruling.

“Judge Gibson has once again exceeded the constitutional authority granted to Utah’s judiciary. After stretching the law to justify taking control of redistricting, she has now rejected Map C — the only option that respected the Legislature’s constitutional role — and imposed a map of activists who are not accountable to Utahns,” Utah Republican Party chair Robert Axson argued.

Axson further charged, “This is not interpretation. It is the arrogance of a judge playing King from the bench.”

The ruling in Utah comes less than a week after California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50, a ballot measure that temporarily suspends the state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returns map-drawing authority to the Democrat-controlled legislature.

The move is expected to result in as many as five new Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, offsetting a redistricting plan enacted earlier this year in Texas — a reliably Republican state — that could add up to five GOP-leaning House seats.

The Utah decision is the latest development in a broader effort by President Trump’s political operation and the Republican Party to strengthen their narrow House majority ahead of the 2026 midterm elections — a cycle in which the party in power typically faces challenges and risks losing seats. As part of that strategy, new congressional maps have already been approved in Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio.