How Utah Republicans ‘weaponized’ Redistricting
Author: Bryan Schott
Schott B. How Utah Republicans 'weaponized' Redistricting. Salt Lake Tribune-Politics, Published Nov 17 2021
1 It’s difficult to argue the new congressional maps passed by the Utah Legislature aren’t gerrymandered. They slice up Salt Lake County into four pieces, a process known as “cracking.”
2 It’s not hard to understand why. Democrat Joe Biden carried Salt Lake County by just over 10 points over Republican Donald Trump.
3 The congressional map proposed by the independent redistricting commission would have created one competitive district out of the four, giving a Democrat a reasonable chance of winning. Instead, lawmakers ignored those maps in favor of their own, which overwhelmingly favored Republicans.
4 Now, we’re starting to get an idea of just how favorable the new congressional maps are for the GOP.
5 David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report described the maps as a “brutal 4R-0D gerrymander” that would “likely shut Democrats out of federal office for at least ten years.”
97 Entirely expected, but Utah Republicans ignore the state’s new advisory commission to propose a 4R-0D map that probably eliminates any chance Dems win federal office for the next decade.
8 Expect Maryland Dems to do the reverse in the next few days. https://t.co/tvtEYivTVU
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 7, 2021
10 How much has the partisan advantage shifted?
11 CD1, currently held by Rep. Blake Moore, got less Republican, but that won’t be much of a problem. Under the old map, the district was rated R+20. Now Wasserman estimates it at R+12. CD1 was Trump +32 in 2020 and is now Trump +19.
12 Rep. Chris Stewart’s CD2 moves from R+10 to R+11. Trump carried the district by 15 points. The new map is Trump +17.
13 The 3rd District was R+17, but the new boundaries make it R+14 for incumbent Rep. John Curtis. CD3 was Trump +25 in 2020. Now it’s Trump +19.
14 The most significant shift was in CD4, which went from the least to the most Republican in Utah. Freshman Rep. Burgess Owens squeaked past Democrat Ben McAdams by a little more than 3,700 votes. His seat got a lot more Republican, moving from R+6 to R+16. Trump won the seat by 9 points in 2020. Now CD4 is Trump +25.
16 “Utah is exhibit A of how one-party states can use redistricting as a weapon to bludgeon the minority party,” Wasserman writes.
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The committee appointed to the redistricting was overruled for a more R-favoring map.
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Source for title
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Shows specific evidence for how the redistricting will affect each of the four districts.
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