The midterm election in Utah is still on track of BREAK the GOP supermajority in the Utah State house.
Flipping 16 seats** has produced a huge opportunity for accountability The Utah State House will have a majority of republican lawmakers but it will no longer have a supermajority.
**Votes are still being counted in close races. Nov 10, 2026
Green highlights are linked to additional information.
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How Utah contributed to the pro-democracy election shift in 2026 midterm election
Voters broke the ~40 yr long GOP supermajority in the Utah house. Utah elected its first federal democratic congressman since the gerrymander of 2021.
Utah voters and Utah judges together asserted our constitutional rights to free and fair congressional districts. This combined effort effectively flipped a previously gerrymandered congressional seat to Democrat Ben McAdams. Rep McAdams won
A feisty group of ordinary Utah volunteers, Better Boundaries and BURRN protected the free and fair congressional district map form being reverse engineered back into a partisan gerrymander.
Utahns prevails despite 11th hour dirty tricks by state GOP lawmakers.
Those partisan lawmakers hijacked a bill for housekeeping issues, HB 242, gave no notice or time to debate insertion of language to criminalize the gift of a postage stamp on a pre-addressed envelope. That gift was described as possible BRIBERY while GOP lawmakers did not do anything to prevent their own paid employees (out-of-state petition gatherers funded by $4.3 million in dark money) from forging hundreds of voter signatures in several counties, systematically lying to voters and threats and intimidation by petition gatherers toward pro-voter people like us. USU received a report of this unsavbort behavior.
GOP lawmakers changed the laws in the middle of a petition process (a power struggle) in order to advance their anti-voter and pro-gerrymander cause.
A CHOICE EXPLAINED:
Essentially GOP lawmakers said “We favor/willfully ignore widespread and well known criminal activity by our side but we will cynically criminalize the gift of a stamp to advance our pro-gerrymander petition."
The pro-democracy citizenry invited voters to remove their signatures from a petition using a legal process designed by the GOP lawmakers to thwart citizen-led petition. ironically, this signature removal process helped Utah voters to prevail in the 2025-2025 round of the anti-gerrymander battle in Utah.
Voters who had been tricked into approving a pro-gerrymander petition, who changed their mind after learning the actual intent of the petition, and those whose names had been forged needed guidance and help in the process. The gift of a stamped and pre-addressed envelope simplified their correction. . ,gift an effective legal tactic of our opponents, the ”.
The pro-gerrymander effort failed because self-funded Utah volunteers, BURRN and others persisted, adjusted to the “stamp act” and helped hundreds of voters to remove their ill-gotten signatures from deceptively advertised petitions. It came down to a very small number of signatures.
The blunami is a huge joy and relief.
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| Click for the story: Utah News Dispatch Update on the midterm elections |
"If results stand, House Republicans’ supermajority is still set to break, with the GOP losing 16 seats. As of Monday, Republicans had 45 seats, Democrats had 28, and unaffiliated candidates were poised to take two districts,..." Source: Utah News Dispatch
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Governor Cox reacts to the results of the midterm election.
He points out that many legislative actions have angered voters.
NO KIDDING!!!!!!
KSL reports on his press conference.
Cox points out that lawmakers risk more angry voters if they do not address the issues voters care about.
"He mentioned concerns from voters about housing, growth and development, data centers, transparency, trust in the government, and whether people making decisions are truly listening.
- He said that the election should be a lesson on character, how we lead, and how we treat people. “They’re asking us to do better, and we should take that seriously,” Cox said.
- The election sent a message that Utah’s legislators need to be more responsive to the people they serve.
- Cox mentioned redistricting and the legislature’s changes to Proposition 4, what began as a voter initiative, as a major instance where Utahns felt like they were not heard. "
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Governor Cox left out a LOT of other issues that anger Utah voters.
- FLOCK Cameras everywhere!
- ICE being aided by local officials and police.
- Unabashed PARTISAN GERRYMANDERING at all levels- since at least 2000.
- HB 242's passage in the dead of night, without debate, and criminalizing stamps instead of the rampant forget and lying by petition gatherers.
- Hiring and protecting unsavory petition gatherers who lied to voters and forged our signatures.
- Gerrymandering districts for county, state, and federal offices.
- Pushing data centers on residents of the state
- Lawmakers and their donors, and buddied profiting from data center construction.
- Money in politics.
- Stuart Adams (the former Utah senate president and self-appointed chair of the MIDA board) and Governor Cox received large donations from developers, donors, energy companies that "coincidentally" followed on state-sponsored projects.
- Lawmakers and their donors, and buddied profiting from data center construction.
- Stuart Adams (the former Utah senate president and self-appointed chair of the MIDA board) and Governor Cox received large donations from developers, donors, energy companies that "coincidentally" followed on state-sponsored projects.
- Creation and current operation of MIDA and the Utah Inland Port Authority
- to avoid public input, oversight, and control.
- to enrich developers and donors of lawmakers.
- to green light dozens of harmful projects
- that harm our state, its environment and the Great Salt Lake.
- and mostly benefit developers, the construction and engineering industry, and produce far fewer jobs than promised.
- to avoid public input, oversight, and control.
- to enrich developers and donors of lawmakers.
- to green light dozens of harmful projects
- that harm our state, its environment and the Great Salt Lake.
- and mostly benefit developers, the construction and engineering industry, and produce far fewer jobs than promised.
- Taxation Without Representation enabled by MIDA and Port Authority.
- Pushing projects with fake military benefit, lying about those projects, harming our state, ignoring AGAIN the severe crisis at the Great Salt Lake.
- Money in politics
- Ignoring voters again and again and again.
- Systematic and repeated attacks on Utah courts, on our judges and justices.
- Harassing Justice Hagan until she resigned to protect her family from intrusive and completely unjustified politically motivated harassment and sexual bias.
- We encourage her family to sue in civil court for outrageous treatment by Utah lawmakers --if she can.
- Creation of a constitutional courts for ALL sort of unsavory reasons.
- Court Packing (SB 134):
- Threatening Judge Gibson and instigating violent threats against her.
- The "Constitutional Court" Panel (HB 392)
- Welcoming a concentration camp to our state.
- Oversight Shielding: New statutes like HB 60 (2026)
- Overturning and significantly altering laws created through the voter initiative process.
- Medical marijuana
- Medicaid expansion
- Fair voting districts. Prop 4.
- Repeated attempted-theft of public land (all the "land heists":
- Attempts to steal our protected federal land and to "gift "some of it to buddies and donors in the mining and fossil fuel industry, and to donor-developers.
- Inaction on the crisis at Great Salt Lake. This environmental nuclear bomb has been worsening for over 20 years.
- Lawmakers failed to meaningfully protect the state's economy, our health and businesses and real estate from the collapsing Great Salt Lake.
- A billion dollars of funding is alleged but in fact only 145,000,000 helps
- The Lake has been in the unhealthy range for over 20 years! It dropped into the unhealthy range in 2003.
- Close up plot of the level of the Great Salt Lake. This annotated plot illustrates the health of the lake. Every lake level below the GREEN one is unhealthy, adverse, or extremely seriously BAD.
Utah Lawmakers first asserted that they have the right to dry out the Great Salt Lake completely and destroy our regional communities in the process.
Notice that the lake is within one foot of its ALL TIME LOWEST LEVEL!
Grow The Flow Tracker provides the most up to date information, like that shown here.Lawmakers actions in the EarthJustice lawsuit about the Great Salt Lake anger voters as well.
Utah legislature's actions in a major lawsuit against them have been shocking and wrong.THE CASE: Several groups brought a lawsuit claiming that Utah lawmakers violated their public obligation to protect our state. The suit says-correctly- that lawmakers are not protecting residents, our health, our economy or real estate from the impacts of the collapsing Great Salt Lake. They must act.
- Then lawmakers started passing laws to protect themselves from liability instead of working overtime to save the Great Salt Lake.Machine learning reports this:In 2023, a coalition of environmental and public health groups (represented by Earthjustice) filed a landmark lawsuit against Utah officials. The plaintiffs claimed the state failed its "public trust" obligation to protect the collapsing Great Salt Lake, risking public health (due to toxic arsenic and mercury dust bowls), the regional economy, and wildlife. [1, 2]As the state attempted to dismiss the suit, a state judge ruled in early 2025 that the lawsuit could proceed, noting the public trust doctrine does protect the lake. In response to this and other high-profile legal challenges, the Utah Legislature pivoted to passing new laws that critics argue are direct attempts to reshape the judiciary and evade accountability. [1, 2, 3, 4]Here is how the legislative push for a new court panel relates to your claims:1. Changing the Rules Mid-GameDuring the 2026 legislative session, lawmakers passed H.B. 392 and S.J.R. 5, which granted the state a unilateral right to remove the presiding judge from high-profile constitutional cases and transfer them to a newly formed, rotating three-judge panel. Critics and plaintiffs immediately decried this as unconstitutional "forum shopping" to strip cases away from judges who might rule against the state. [1, 2, 3]2. The Threat of a "Constitutional Court"When environmental and civic groups challenged these new panel laws as a violation of the separation of powers, lawmakers passed yet another bill (H.B. 366) to alter the procedural rules mid-game. Furthermore, sponsoring lawmakers stated that if the Utah Supreme Court strikes down their new three-judge panel system, they intend to pursue their original fallback plan: creating an entirely new, dedicated "constitutional court" where the legislature would define the jurisdiction to hear challenges against their laws. [1, 2, 3]3. Current StatusThe ongoing dispute over whether the legislature can legally shift these cases around has put multiple major lawsuits on pause. The Utah Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the constitutionality of this judicial restructuring. While state officials claim creating these panels falls under their right to manage judicial efficiency, opposing advocacy groups argue it is a direct attempt to escape accountability for the mismanagement of the Great Salt Lake and other major state issues. [1, 2, 3]
