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Days until the court-mandated deadline for lawmakers to submit new congressional maps (9/25/2025) - 7
Days until Election Day (11/4/2025) - 47
Days to the start of the 2026 Utah Legislature (1/20/2026) - 124
Days until the 2026 midterm elections (11/3/2026) - 411
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Map proposal could break Utah GOP's stranglehold on congressional delegation
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, the Utah legislature's only member of the Forward Party, proposed a congressional map on Wednesday that shows how hard it will be for Republican lawmakers to maintain the GOP advantage...if they follow the rules.
Thatcher claims he drew the maps by following guidelines set out in Prop. 4-focusing on compactness, keeping communities together wherever possible, and not favoring a party, incumbent or candidate.
"This was drawn on the basic premise that there are four major population counties that must split. So where do you split them? I would argue that the most fair way to do it is to just split straight down. I-15. Most people have no idea where their municipal boundaries are. Everyone knows where I-15 is. And this funny thing happens if you split the Wasatch Front down I-15 while keeping all other counties intact, you actually come pretty darn close to 50-50," Thatcher said on Wednesday.
Thatcher's map looks similar to the "pizza slice" map approved by lawmakers in 2021, mostly because it splits Salt Lake County into four pieces. That map was thrown out by Judge Dianna Gibson in August.
Salt Lake County split under Sen. Daniel Thatcher's proposed congressional map
Unlike Utah's current map, Thatcher's proposal creates a seemingly competitive congressional district, instead of the four rock-solid Republican seats that Utah has now.
Analysis using data from Redistricter shows the impact from Thatcher’s map. While three districts would remain safely Republican with margins of 18-41%, the proposed 2nd District - spanning from northeastern Salt Lake County to the state borders - would become genuinely competitive, with just a 6-point Republican advantage based on 2024 election data.
There's very little chance that the GOP-controlled legislature will adopt, or even seriously consider Thatcher's proposal, especially after he announced he was leaving the Republican Party on the final day of the 2025 legislative session.
Still, his map demonstrates how difficult it may be for the legislature to keep Utah's four congressional seats solidly Republican if they follow the rules under Prop. 4.
What you need to know
Thursday morning's top headlines
Podcast: Utah's Map-tastrophe. [Utah Political Watch]
Utah's court-ordered redistricting kicks off next week. [Fox 13]
Utah's new homeless campus should have 300-plus beds for civil commitment, board chair says. [Utah News Dispatch]
Utah State University will make these security changes before Charlie Kirk's tour continues there in his honor. [Salt Lake Tribune]
Renewable advocates launch effort to fast-track utility-scale solar–before government incentives expire. [Salt Lake Tribune]