President Donald Trump pleaded with his social media followers Friday to sign petitions to restore the Legislature’s ability to draw gerrymandered political districts in order to “Stop Radical Leftist Judges, and KEEP UTAH RED.”
Trump’s post on Truth Social comes as Utah Republicans reached their signature goal in the first of 26 required state Senate districts and as they need 84,677 more signatures statewide to qualify for that ballot, as of Friday’s update from the lieutenant governor’s office.
“Utahns deserve Maps drawn by those they elect, not Rogue Judges or Leftwing Activist who never faced the Voters,” Trump wrote in his post. “I encourage all Patriotic Utahns, Republicans, and MAGA Supporters who love their Great State and Country to sign this initiative, ASAP.”
After 2 ½ months of collecting support, the Republican-backed group spearheading the effort, Utahns for Representative Government, is still not quite 40% of the way to the statewide goal of 140,748 signatures, as of Friday.
Elizabeth Rasmussen, executive director of the group Better Boundaries, which organized the 2018 initiative that Republicans are now trying to repeal, said in a statement that the president’s pleas show that Republicans are floundering.
“After burning through millions of dollars, outside actors still can’t get enough Utahns to sign onto repealing the reform voters already passed. That tells you everything,” she said Friday. “If this repeal were popular with Utah voters, it wouldn’t need national megaphones and millions of dollars to survive.”
GOP organizers checked off their first Senate district — District 27 in central and southern Utah. They still need to meet specific thresholds in 25 more of Utah’s 29 senate districts in order for their effort to repeal the 2018 Better Boundaries initiative, which banned partisan gerrymandering, to qualify for the November ballot.
Organizers continue to lag well behind their targets in parts of Weber, Davis and Salt Lake counties. They are less than a quarter of the way to their target in nine of those districts.
Last week, conservative influencer Scott Presler appeared at a series of Republican signature-gathering events in Kaysville, Roy, Sandy and American Fork. Presler posted that the events garnered about 900 signatures.
Presler is scheduled to return to Utah for another signature-gathering event Saturday at the Rocky Mountain Gun Show in Sandy and other events through the week, according to Presler’s social media posts.
The tally from the lieutenant governor’s office only reflects the signatures that have already been submitted to and validated by county clerks, not signatures that have been gathered that are yet to be submitted. The group has until Feb. 14 to turn in signature packets.
Ultimately, Republicans are seeking to undo a decision by 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson, who ruled the congressional map that had been in place since 2021 failed to comply with voters’ 2018 Better Boundaries initiative and needed to be redrawn.
Gibson then rejected the Legislature’s second attempt at a map and chose boundaries recommended by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which create a Democrat-leaning district in Salt Lake County. Republican legislators have said they plan to challenge Gibson’s ruling, but if that appeal fails, the initiative becomes the fallback option.
If the repeal question ends up on the ballot and is approved by voters in November, the Legislature would presumably be able to draw a new map for the 2028 election without limitations on how much it favors Republicans over Democrats.
To get the initiative on the ballot, the party is using hundreds of volunteers and hired signature gatherers. A number of Utahns have complained that at least some collectors are using misleading tactics to trick people into signing the petitions. In those cases, voters can file a form with their county clerks asking to have their signatures removed.
According to a recent poll commissioned by the conservative Sutherland Institute, 85% of registered Utah voters want an independent commission involved in the redistricting process — 40% want the commission’s role to be advisory, while 45% say the Legislature should have to choose from maps recommended by the commission.