The Utah congressional map must be redrawn ahead of the 2026 midterms, a judge has ruled. CBS News' Hunter Woodall explains.

Utah

Utah lawmakers have condemned a court-ordered redistricting map that creates a Democratic-leaning congressional district, replacing a previous map that favored Republicans in all four districts. The Republican-controlled legislature plans to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court after a judge rejected their proposed map in favor of one supported by plaintiffs who argued the old map was unfair.

This development is considered a rare redistricting win for Democrats in Utah and has led to a surge of Democratic candidates for the new district. The report also notes similar redistricting disputes in Missouri, where a ballot referendum may challenge a Republican-favored map, reflecting broader national tensions over congressional district boundaries.

Utah redistricting efforts face court order

Utah lawmakers passed a resolution condemning court-ordered redistricting in that state. The state's previous congressional map is composed of four districts that heavily favor Republicans. The new court-ordered map creates a single Democratic-leaning district. The Republican-controlled Utah state legislature plans to appeal the new map to the state Supreme Court. CBS News political reporter Hunter Whittle joins us from our DC Bureau to discuss this. Good morning, Hunter. We haven't seen a scenario like this just yet, so explain to our viewers why redistricting in Utah, unlike elsewhere, is court-ordered. Well, Errol, this is one of the more interesting situations we've seen play out in this larger redistricting battle across the country. Utah, like you said, it's a reliably Republican state, but because of changes passed by voters in recent years, a case was brought to the court essentially saying that the maps were not fair in the state. That led to this court order earlier this year that said the state had to redraw its congressional maps. Now, what's significant here is the Utah GOP-led legislature moved forward, passed a new map, sent that to the court. That same judge rejected that map and actually went in favor of a map that was favored by the plaintiffs in this case that actually will help, likely to help Democrats. This is seen as one of the rare redistricting victories around the country for Democrats, and it has obviously upset Republicans because instead of a map that maybe essentially had two Republican-leaning districts that could be competitive in a wave election year for Democrats, it essentially made one large Democratic district, and you're seeing a large field of Democrats already running for that seat. And how difficult will it be for Utah Republicans to upend this new map? That's the key question here. Obviously, when you see how the courts throughout Utah have acted on this issue, it does set an interesting tone for what Utah Republicans are facing, but I would just look to the rhetoric you're seeing from Republicans on this issue. They're clearly upset. They're clearly talking a major game about what has happened here, but also it's one of those things where no matter what had happened with these larger redistricting tensions around the country, we knew that if the court acted in this situation, that Utah was likely going to have to take some sort of action. So there is a sense of, did Republicans see this coming when they started playing out earlier this year, Errol? Now, let's also talk about Missouri, because there's a new effort there to block a redistricting plan, which was backed by President Trump. Bring our viewers up to speed on what's happening in that state. Well, Errol, when I was a much younger reporter, I covered Missouri politics, and this is a significant one because Missouri Republicans earlier this year made a major effort to redraw the congressional district held by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver. This is a Kansas City area-focused district. Missouri only has two Democratic districts in the state. They redrew that district, made it more favorable to Republicans, obviously caused a lot of Democratic concern in the process. Missouri, though, is a very interesting state, Errol. It's one of these places where the voters there, while they tend to vote for Republicans, on ballot measures, they can tend to vote in a more liberal sense. Now, because of certain issues in the statehouse, there was an effort, essentially people are allowed to try and challenge, bring, gather signatures, bring an effort to the ballot to try and challenge this new congressional map. The signature gatherers are saying, hey, we have enough to force a ballot referendum on this, and that could cause this new district, this redrawn district that Republicans are hoping to pick up, to actually not be in place for the 2026 midterms. Fascinating to watch this unfold in different ways across the country. Hunter Woodall across every aspect of it. Thanks so much.

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