Blake Moore wants you to know he’s against gerrymandering.
He was against it in 2017, when he co-chaired Better Boundaries, the citizen initiative that planted the seed for Utah’s independent redistricting commission. He was against it in 2018, when Proposition 4 narrowly passed.
He’s still against it now, as a sitting Republican congressman watching the commission he helped create carve out a Democrat-friendly Salt Lake City district that could flip a Republican-held House seat in the 2026 midterms.
But the monster is his. He built it.
A federal judge threw out Utah’s congressional map and ordered new lines drawn before the midterm elections, all of which was made possible by the legal framework Moore helped establish.
The result, as national Democrats are openly bullish about flipping a House seat in Utah with the new maps deseret, is a political gift wrapped in the language of reform.
Now Moore says the commission “strayed from its original mission.” He calls the new Salt Lake district reverse gerrymandering and laments that Better Boundaries became “more focused on outcomes” — specifically, a Democratic outcome.
Moore pointed to the fact that only congressional maps, not state Legislature maps, were challenged in the lawsuit — arguing it proves the legal fight was designed to deliver political advantage in the fight for control of Congress.
He’s probably right about that. The question Utah Republicans have every right to ask: What did you think was going to happen?
Moore did not create a neutral process. He created a weapon, handed it to lawyers, and walked away. When the Utah Legislature amended Prop 4 in 2020 to clarify the commission’s advisory role — and then drew its own safe four-seat Republican map — Better Boundaries sued.
That lawsuit is what brought the judge into the picture. That judge is what produced a Democrat-leaning Salt Lake seat. And that seat could be the difference between a Republican House majority and Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.
Moore says he always believed the commission should be advisory. He invokes Ronald Reagan. He says he can’t support commissions in blue states but oppose them in red ones. “There’s a goose and a gander here,” Moore told the Deseret News. deseret
Fair enough. But geese don’t cost your party the House.
Moore now supports a 2026 ballot initiative to repeal Proposition 4 — and also backs a constitutional amendment giving lawmakers flexibility to modify future voter initiatives. Both positions are correct. Both are also years too late. The map is drawn. The lawyers got paid. The Democrats are organizing in Salt Lake City.
A Republican congressman who co-chaired the effort that produced this outcome has some explaining to do — not just to Utah voters, but to every House Republican whose majority may hinge on what happens in a state that should be the party’s safest turf.
The 2026 midterms are coming. Blake Moore’s fingerprints are all over the mess.
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