1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

As governor, it is shameful that you support silencing the Utah voter. Your decision to call a special session on December 9 and support the appeal of Judge Dianna Gibson's court-ordered congressional map directly contradicts the will of voters who approved an independent redistricting process through a 2018 ballot initiative. Your public statements expressing fear of direct democracy reveal a troubling disregard for the fundamental principle that voters should have a voice in their government. When citizens use ballot initiatives to enact reforms that the Legislature opposes, the solution is not to dismantle the initiative process itself. Yet that is exactly what you are enabling through this special session and the proposed constitutional amendment to limit voter-approved initiatives. The Legislature's 2021 adoption of a map with four safe Republican congressional districts deliberately undid what voters had chosen. Judge Gibson ruled in favor of the people, enforcing the independent redistricting process that had clear public support. Your response has been to side with legislative leaders who claim an unelected judge silenced Utahns, when the opposite is true. The real silencing happened when the Legislature dismantled the redistricting process voters approved. The Utah Supreme Court has already ruled that the Legislature's power to change government reform ballot initiatives has limits. Your continued push against those boundaries, combined with your stated fear of direct democracy, suggests you view voter initiatives as obstacles rather than expressions of democratic will. I urge you to cancel the December 9 special session, withdraw support for the appeal, and oppose any constitutional amendments designed to weaken ballot initiatives. Your role as governor should be to protect democratic processes and respect court rulings that uphold voter decisions, not to help legislative leaders circumvent them when politically inconvenient. Utah voters deserve a governor who trusts them to participate in their own governance.