Colorado Supreme Court deals blow to Democrats’ redistricting push

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday rejected three proposed ballot measures supported by Democrats that were designed to pave the way for a new congressional map ahead of the 2028 election.

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The rulings are the latest blow to Democratic efforts to counter Republican-led redistricting pushes across the country.

All three initiatives were organized by a group called Coloradans for a Level Playing Field. One would have put the state’s independent redistricting commission, which voters approved in 2018, on hold and asked voters to approve a new congressional map for only the 2028 and 2030 election cycles. Another two proposed initiatives broke that goal into two separate parts: Pausing the commission and implementing new district lines.

If the measures had appeared on the ballot this November and voters had approved them, a new congressional map would have gone into effect starting in 2028 that would put Democrats in position to win seven of eight of the state’s congressional seats. Democrats currently hold four.

In three separate opinions, the state Supreme Court wrote that the three proposed ballot measures violated the state’s “single subject requirement.”

“Changing the constitutionally mandated frequency of redistricting — however temporary the change — is not merely a mechanism to administer the new congressional district map,” Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Monica Marquez wrote in one unanimous decision . “Instead, it represents a seismic shift to Colorado’s longstanding redistricting process enshrined in the state constitution.”

A second opinion, which was also unanimous, found that breaking up the original measure into two proposals still violated the rule.

A spokesperson for the group did not immediately respond to questions about the rulings.

The frenzied mid-decade redistricting fight kicked off last summer, when President Donald Trump pressured Republican state lawmakers to draw new maps to help protect the party’s narrow House majority. It was further supercharged this spring when the Supreme Court gutted a key provision in the Voting Rights Act, leading to GOP-controlled states carving up majority-Black districts represented by Democrats.

Democrats ability to respond has been limited, in part because of independent commissions that are in place in states they control, like Colorado.

Virginia Democrats put a similar measure on the ballot this year to bypass their state’s redistricting commission and enact a more favorable map for their party. Voters narrowly approved the referendum, but the state Supreme Court blocked it from going into effect.