SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah judge on Monday rejected a new congressional map drawn by Republican lawmakers and adopted an alternate proposal creating a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Republicans hold all four of Utah’s U.S. House seats and had advanced a map poised to protect them. But Judge Dianna Gibson ruled just before a midnight deadline that the Legislature's map “unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats."

She had ordered lawmakers to draw a map that complies with standards established by voters to ensure districts don’t deliberately favor a party, a practice known as gerrymandering. If they failed, Gibson warned she may consider other maps submitted by plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led her to throw out Utah’s existing map.

Gibson ultimately selected a map drawn by plaintiffs, the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government. It keeps Salt Lake County almost entirely within one district, instead of dividing the heavily Democratic population center among all four districts, as was the case previously.

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican, said on the social media site X that an emergency appeal is likely, but the state nonetheless must begin implementing the new boundaries to ensure things are in place for candidate filing in January.

“The people of Utah deserve an orderly and fair election and we will do everything in our power to administer one,” she said Tuesday.

Henderson had said Monday was the last possible date to enact a new congressional map so county clerks would have enough time to prepare for candidate filing.

The judge's ruling throws a curveball for Republicans in a state where they expected a clean sweep as they work to add winnable seats elsewhere. Nationally, Democrats need to net three U.S. House seats next year to wrest control of the chamber from the GOP, which is trying to buck a historic pattern of the president’s party losing seats in the midterms.

The newly approved map gives Utah Democrats a much stronger chance to flip a seat. The state last had a Democrat in Congress in early 2021.

Republicans have argued Gibson does not have legal authority to enact a map that wasn’t approved by the Legislature. State Rep. Matt MacPherson called the ruling a “gross abuse of power” and said he has opened a bill to pursue impeachment against Gibson.

In August, Gibson struck down the Utah congressional map adopted after the 2020 census because the Legislature had circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters.

The ruling thrust Utah into a national redistricting battle as President Donald Trump urged Republican-led states to take up mid-decade redistricting to try to help the GOP retain control of the House in 2026. Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina already have enacted new congressional maps in response to Trump's call. In compliance with a state constitutional mandate for new districts, a bipartisan Ohio panel also recently adopted a new U.S. House map that could improve Republican chances in two districts.

But Democrats have been fighting back. California voters approved new congressional districts last week that could give Democrats a shot at winning five more seats, effectively offsetting Republican gains in Texas.

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday that Democrats are “ready to respond forcefully in the weeks ahead” with redistricting plans in Illinois, Virginia, New York and Maryland.

Redistricting typically occurs once a decade after a census. There are no federal restrictions to redrawing districts mid-decade, but some states — more led by Democrats than Republicans — set their own limitations. The Utah ruling gives an unexpected boost to Democrats, who have fewer opportunities to gain seats through redistricting.

If Gibson had instead approved the map drawn by lawmakers, all four districts would still lean Republican but two would have become slightly competitive for Democrats. Their proposal gambled on Republicans’ ability to protect all four seats under much slimmer margins rather than create a single left-leaning district.