Donald Trump Jr. pushes Utah GOP redistricting repeal efforts

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. is pushing his followers to sign up for signature gathering efforts for the Utah’s GOP’s dual-track effort to repeal Utah’s anti-gerrymandering process and the court-stipulated map that Utah lawmakers approved earlier this month.

“RINO judges & liberal groups are trying to STEAL two GOP house seats in Utah. You can stop it!” Trump Jr. posted on X with a link to sign up with Patriot Grassroots, an out-of-state firm helping the GOP meet it’s signatures thresholds.

That link goes to sign up sheet for Patriot Grassrooots that reads:

“We are leading a statewide initiative in Utah to stop the redistricting proposal that could cost Republicans up to two U.S. congressional. seats. The fight is about keeping representation in Utah reflective of its deep red roots.”

It goes to say that it is a paid effort and they are looking from both in state and “out of state patriots.”

The push comes after the Utah GOP filled paperwork to repeal Prop 4 via an indirect initiative, and overturn map C via referendum. The legislature voted on the redistricted map C after a Third District Judge ruled in August that they unconstitutionally overturned Prop 4, a citizen’s ballot initiative that passed in 2018.

The Utah GOP has also set up a political issues committee to collect donations on their behalf. As of this publication there were no public contributions.

UTGOP needs over 200,000 signatures by mid Nov.

The indirect initiative will require 70,374 valid signatures, which equates to 4 percent of Utah’s active registered voters following the 2024 general election. That threshold must also be met in 26 of Utah’s 29 counties. If successful, it opens a bill file to strike the sections of code that Proposition 4 created. The legislature will then vote on the first day of the 2026 legislative session on whether to repeal it. The deadline for signatures is November 15.

The referendum effort will require 140,748 signatures which equates to 8% of active registered voters statewide and that threshold must be met 15 of 29 counties. If the threshold is met, the map gets halted and put on the ballot for a vote in 2026. That signature deadline is November 18.

If either of those two things happen, it’s unclear which map will be used in the 2026 midterms, however a court is still in the process of evaluating new claims against the legislature. The plaintiffs in Utah’s redistricting case argue that if map C is invalidated, the judge can pick a new one.

As of this publication, Utah’s Lt. Governor has yet to certify that the initative and referrendum can move forward.

The move is also facing a legal challenge. The claim filed by the plaintiffs claims that the indirect initiative is unconstitutional arguing that in this case, Utah’s Supreme Court upheld that the state’s founding document only provides one way to initiative a new law — via a majority vote of the people.

Their suit argues that the inidirect initative was created by statute and therefore is not protected the by the high court’s ruling in 2024 which upheld that Utahns have a right to alter and reform their government via initative and the Utah legislature can only change initatives if there’s a compelling government interest.

Utah’s Republican party defended the efforts to initiative a bill directly to the legislature instead putting the issue to a statewide vote in an interview with Inside Utah Politics with Lindsay Aerts that aired Sunday

“We are a constitutional republic, we’ve affirmed that as a country and as a state,” GOP Party Chair, Rob Axson said. “I don’t think we should ever shy away from leaning into where you have people to represent you… and so 100,000 signatures gathered to have 75,000 confirmed, that is representative.”