- Gov. Cox said the nation's redistricting battle could increase political polarization.
- Cox said the Constitution gives states control if they want to keep voting by mail.
- Rep. Kennedy agrees with Trump that noncitizens should not be counted in the census.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on Thursday the redistricting battle taking place in states across the country ahead of the 2026 midterm elections could backfire in the long term.
Referencing the principle of “Chesterton’s Fence,” Cox said it is unwise to eliminate a system without fully understanding why it was established in the first place.
“Sometimes, I think we make changes to long-standing norms and policies, not realizing the consequences of those changes to those norms and policies,” Cox said. “I fear that this may be one of those.”
Speaking at his monthly PBS news conference, Cox returned to a regular theme of his, emphasizing the deep divides in U.S. politics, and worrying that a redistricting race to the bottom will only make it worse.
On Wednesday, the Texas House approved new district maps at the behest of President Donald Trump that will increase the number of congressional seats Republicans are likely to win in the state.
The California Legislature is poised to approve its own map changes this week that could secure them an extra five seats next year — the same number Republicans are expected to flip in the Lone Star State — as long as voters approve the maps in November.
“We just see the escalation that continues to happen,” Cox said. “It just continues to ratchet up the toxicity — and the stakes, quite frankly — and so I would be very cautious about doing that.”
A gerrymandering arms race
Since Trump called on Texas Republicans last month to break with redistricting tradition, Democrats have accused the GOP of gerrymandering tactics that border on election interference, and have threatened to retaliate in kind.
Meanwhile, Republicans have cited Democrats’ history of gerrymandering in blue states, and recent Supreme Court rulings that allow for politically motivated redistricting in what is fundamentally a political process.
The finger-pointing by both sides could accelerate a worrying trend toward norm breaking and partisan tribalism, according to Cox, who gained recognition for his Disagree Better campaign as National Governors Association chair.
“We are so polarized as a country with the trust in institutions falling,” Cox said. “I can’t see a scenario where every two or four years we’re redistricting, I can’t see a scenario where that makes life better for anybody.”
Utah’s congressional boundaries are currently being litigated in federal court over allegations that state lawmakers violated the Utah Constitution by ignoring recommendations from an independent redistricting commission created by voter initiative.
The maps approved in 2021 redrew the Beehive State’s congressional districts in a way that split up Democratic voters between the state’s four House districts and made it more difficult for a Democrat to represent the state in Congress.
Shifting the census consensus
Republicans have partially justified their redistricting revolution by alleging the 2020 census may have undercounted in Republican-led states and overcounted Democratic-held states by including noncitizens.
The U.S. Constitution mandates a national census every decade to count all residents. Earlier this month, Trump announced his administration will work on a new census that excludes “People who are in our Country illegally.”
On Thursday, Cox said there are questions about whether noncitizens should be factored into the distribution of Electoral College votes. But he said the census should still count every resident to provide the best data.
In an interview with the Deseret News earlier this month, Utah Rep. Mike Kennedy, of the state’s 3rd Congressional District, said he agrees with the president that “citizens should be counted, not undocumented individuals.”
“Citizens are what the Founders intended,” Kennedy said. “I don’t believe the founders ever foresaw the possibility that our country would have tens of millions of people in this country that are living illegally in this country.”
Modern technology has made it possible to conduct a census at least every five years, according to Kennedy, which he said would help elected officials govern better amid a rapidly changing population.
Not all mail-in voting created equal
On Monday, Trump also took on the form of voting used by a majority of Utahns, announcing he would lead an effort to “get rid of mail-in ballots” by signing an executive order to “help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.”
Utah Sen. Mike Lee responded in favor of Trump’s initiative while Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson reiterated that the “constitutional right” of states to decide how to “conduct secure elections is a fundamental strength of our system.”
“The Constitution is very clear that it’s in the purview of the states and not the federal government,” Cox agreed, during Thursday’s press conference. “And I think states should defend that.”
However, Cox said Trump is right to be “extremely cautious when it comes to mail-in voting” because, unlike Utah, most states implemented a vote-by-mail system “virtually overnight” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Utah started rolling out vote by mail in 2012 before implementing it statewide in 2019. The Legislature continues to enhance safeguards for the process, voting in 2025 to implement ballot deadlines and a new identification measure.
For this reason, many of the criticisms levied toward mail-in ballots do not apply to Utah, according to Cox. When skeptics get a chance to view the process, Cox said they come away with increased confidence in election security.
“We can do both things,” Cox said. “We can defend the role of the states and be very serious about voter integrity. And I think more states need to be more serious about voting integrity.”