Cox claims fair maps are actually unfair...to Republicans

Days until the court-mandated deadline for lawmakers to submit new congressional maps (9/25/2025) - 16
Days until Election Day (11/4/2025) - 56
Days to the start of the 2026 Utah Legislature (1/20/2026) - 133
Days until the 2026 midterm elections (11/3/2026) - 420
Days until the 2028 presidential election (11/7/2028) - 1,155

As the legislature prepares to redraw Utah's congressional map, Gov. Spencer Cox is trying to grease the skids for legislative Republicans by claiming, "Democrats in our state desperately want a district, even though Republicans outnumber them three to one in the state. The only way to get a Democratic district in the state is to gerrymander."

That's an incredibly dishonest argument and ignores the blatant gerrymandering scheme lawmakers used in 2021, which is one of the reasons they have to draw new maps.

Yes, Republicans outnumber Democrats by close to 4-1, and Cox's claim makes sense if only members of those two parties cast ballots.

Registered Republicans only make up 51% of Utah voters, and Democrats account for 13%. Nearly 30% of registered voters in Utah don't belong to either political party.

Using Cox's logic, Republicans outnumber independents by a 2-1 margin—yet these 30% of voters, nearly one-third of Utah's electorate, are effectively shut out of meaningful representation. By Cox's own mathematical reasoning, shouldn't at least one congressional seat reflect their interests?

As I explained last week, the current congressional map is designed to protect Utah's Republican hegemony against a situation where a coalition of Democrats, independents (and even some Republicans) elect someone who is not a member of the GOP to Congress. That's why they split voters who cast a ballot for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 almost equally across the four districts.

Prop. 4's anti-gerrymandering rules created a system where partisan data can't determine where boundaries are drawn. The independent commission followed those rules in 2021 and came up with three maps that would have almost assuredly elected a non-Republican to Congress.

That's not gerrymandering; it's fairness.

Cox is orchestrating a familiar political theater: feigned deliberation followed by predetermined outcome. When the legislature inevitably sends him a map with token adjustments—just enough to claim change while maintaining GOP dominance—he'll perform his usual routine of studied concern before rubber-stamping the plan.

It’s familiar kabuki theater. Cox, with properly furrowed brow, will say he doesn’t like the map; it’s not what he would have done. Will he veto it? No, because the time frame to draw a new one is too short, or it passed with a veto-proof majority. Sorry, but his hands are tied.

The message to Utah's independent voters and minorities is clear: In Cox's vision of democracy, numbers only matter when they serve the majority’s interests. The rest of Utah's electorate? They're just statistical inconveniences to be mapped into irrelevance.

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