Redistricting battles are heating up across the United States, with high-stakes debates and courtroom showdowns unfolding in states like New Hampshire and Utah as the 2026 midterm elections draw closer. Just this week, political maneuvering and legal arguments have put the spotlight on the fundamental question of who gets to draw the lines that decide the balance of power in Congress. These disputes are not just about maps—they’re about the future of American democracy and the rules of the game for both parties.
In New Hampshire, the Republican push to redraw the state’s congressional districts hit a dramatic pause on October 24, 2025, when State Senator Dan Innis withdrew his own redistricting bill. According to POLITICO, Innis made the move after facing firm opposition from Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte. "The governor wasn’t that supportive of it since it’s in the middle of the normal redistricting cycle," Innis explained, noting that he’d rather avoid creating unnecessary friction within his own party. "I thought it made sense to save this for another time."
This decision is a blow to the White House’s ongoing efforts to persuade GOP-led states to redraw congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms. The stakes are high: both of New Hampshire’s congressional districts are currently held by Democrats, and national Democrats need to net just three seats next year to reclaim control of the House. The Trump team, eager to shore up the GOP majority, had hoped a new map might flip at least one of those seats.
The White House’s pressure campaign in New Hampshire had been anything but subtle. According to POLITICO, there was even talk of supporting a primary challenge to Governor Ayotte if she didn’t play ball. Corey Lewandowski, a longtime Trump ally and Department of Homeland Security senior adviser, publicly floated the idea of running for governor himself in response to Ayotte’s reluctance. But Ayotte, in her first term as governor, stood her ground, telling local station WMUR, "We’re in the middle of the census, I don’t think the timing is right for redistricting." She added, "The thing [Granite Staters are] talking to me about is not redistricting."
New Hampshire’s districts have been operating under a court-approved map since 2022, after then-Governor Chris Sununu vetoed the Legislature’s previous plans. Despite some interest among Republican lawmakers to revisit the issue, most agree that without Ayotte’s support, the push for a mid-decade redraw is going nowhere fast.
Meanwhile, the redistricting drama in Utah is playing out in a courtroom rather than the statehouse. On October 24, 2025, testimony continued in Utah’s Third District Court as Judge Dianna Gibson heard arguments over whether the Republican-controlled Legislature’s latest congressional map is fair—or fundamentally biased against Democrats.
The Legislature’s expert witness, Sean Trende, an election analyst for RealClearPolitics, insisted the map doesn’t lock Democrats out of power. "If they run [former Congress member] Ben McAdams in one and [independent] Evan McMullin in the other, they’re going to have half the delegation," Trende testified, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. He noted that "there are two districts in this map that are more Democratic than the district that elected two Democrats and had very close races [under the 2011 map]."
Trende also explained that he drew the map without using partisan data, focusing instead on fixing what he called the "four-way split of Salt Lake County." He applied an east-west division and made other revisions to keep Salt Lake City intact. To test for fairness, Trende compared the Legislature’s map to 100,000 computer-generated alternatives and found it fell within the acceptable range for partisan bias. "No matter what I looked at, the map passed," he told the court.
But the plaintiffs—led by groups like the League of Women Voters and Mormon Women for Ethical Government—see things differently. They argue the map creates four safe Republican districts, effectively shutting Democrats out of competitive races. On Thursday, their witnesses called the Legislature’s map an "outlier" and warned it would deprive Democrats of a fair shot. During cross-examination, Mark Gaber, attorney for the plaintiffs, pointed to previous court cases where Trende’s testimony was dismissed as "fundamentally flawed" and "completely useless."
The legal wrangling in Utah is rooted in the state’s recent history of redistricting reform. In 2018, voters approved Proposition 4, the Better Boundaries initiative, aiming to ban partisan gerrymandering. The Legislature largely repealed the initiative, but in a twist, the Utah Supreme Court ruled last year that the repeal was unconstitutional, preserving voters’ rights to change laws through ballot initiatives. In August 2025, Judge Gibson tossed out the Legislature’s 2021 map for failing to comply with the initiative, and she now faces a November 10 deadline to pick a new map for the 2026 midterms. The Legislature has submitted one proposal, while the plaintiffs have offered two alternatives.
Across both states, the redistricting debates reflect broader national tensions over who controls the rules of representation. In New Hampshire, the GOP’s internal divisions and the governor’s resistance have, at least for now, blocked a mid-cycle redraw. In Utah, the courts—and ultimately, the voters—are testing whether reforms designed to curb partisan gerrymandering can withstand political pushback.
For Democrats, the stakes are clear. With the House majority within reach, every district line matters. Republicans, on the other hand, are fighting to maintain the gains they made in previous cycles, sometimes against resistance from within their own ranks. The White House’s aggressive tactics in New Hampshire—and the courtroom battles in Utah—underscore just how high the temperature has gotten in this perennial tug-of-war.
As the 2026 midterms approach, these state-level fights are likely to shape not just the composition of Congress but the broader contours of American political competition. The outcome in Utah’s court, due in just a couple of weeks, could set a precedent for how voter-approved reforms are enforced. In New Hampshire, the GOP’s decision to hit pause may only be temporary, as national party leaders continue to look for every possible advantage.
For now, though, the redistricting push in New Hampshire is on ice, and Utah’s fate rests in the hands of Judge Gibson. The nation’s eyes are watching—because when it comes to drawing the lines of democracy, every detail counts.