“Blake Moore’s career will be remembered for giving pro-abortion Democrats a seat in Congress. My career has been spent fighting against Planned Parenthood. I’m running for Congress to let Utahns decide which future they want. Join the pro-life team,” Lisonbee wrote in a post to X on Tuesday, the same day she launched her campaign to oust Moore in the Republican primary for the second congressional district.

In her statement, Lisonbee, the House sponsor of the state’s near-total abortion ban in 2020, responded to a video made by state Sen. Nate Blouin, the progressive Democratic candidate campaigning to flip the 1st Congressional District blue. In that video, Blouin expressed his support for Planned Parenthood, the country’s primary abortion provider, and said Roe v. Wade should be codified into law.

The infighting among Republicans centers on Moore’s support for Prop. 4, a ballot initiative he helped spearhead nearly a decade ago that promoted independent oversight of redistricting. Moore has recently faced heat from conservatives for not pushing to repeal Prop. 4, which Republicans such as President Donald Trump want to be rescinded to promote redistricting efforts favoring the GOP.

Moore’s campaign told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that Lisonbee’s attack marks “an effort by a retiring legislator to blame Blake for a judge’s terrible decision and to draw resources away from saving our Republican majority.”

Moore helped lead a group called Better Boundaries, which in 2018 championed a successful effort to pass Prop. 4, a voter-approved anti-gerrymandering ballot initiative that established an independent redistricting commission to recommend new political maps to the state legislature. 

The legislature later repealed Prop. 4 and passed a new redistricting map that favored Republicans in 2020. Utah District Court Judge Dianna Gibson blocked the new map last November after reinstating Prop. 4 in August, arguing that the legislature violated the state’s constitution when it nullified the proposition and that the new map did not comply with the proposition’s terms. Gibson’s ruling led to the court-ordered creation of a new map that changed the electoral dynamic in the state.

Utah has four House seats, and the GOP currently holds all of them: Moore and Reps. Celeste Maloy (R-UT), Mike Kennedy (R-UT), and Burgess Owens (R-UT). Gibson’s ruling changed the boundaries of one of those House seats, making it easier for a Democrat to flip the first congressional district blue.

This change set the GOP up for an awkward member-on-member primary, with four lawmakers battling for three Republican seats. Amid the shakeup, Owens earlier this month announced he would not run for reelection to avoid likely having to run against one of his colleagues. 

Many GOP leaders, including Trump and Utah Republican Party Chair Robert Axson have slammed Gibson’s ruling and expressed support for an effort to repeal Prop. 4. In the wake of the judicial showdown, Moore’s support for the original Prop. 4 initiative has revived scrutiny from the Right, as hardliners have argued it helped propel candidates like Blouin. They have accused the incumbent lawmaker of failing to push to repeal the measure he once helped spearhead.

“Celeste, Burgess, and Mike all signed the repeal of Prop 4. Blake Moore did not,” Utah resident Alexis Ence wrote in a post to X. “When I asked Blake if he supported repeal, he could not give me a straight answer … When there is one less Republican in Congress from Utah next year, remember to thank Blake Moore for making it happen.”

In late February, Moore maintained he still backed the spirit of “transparency” that fueled Prop. 4. But in remarks similar to Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Moore criticized Gibson for launching the process by which the court effectively picked the new map. The representative said it removed accountability and that the “judge should have continually returned the map-drawing responsibility back to the legislature, to maintain constitutionality.” The incumbent lawmaker also criticized Better Boundaries, the group he once co-chaired, for launching an effort that encouraged voters to remove their signatures from the GOP-backed petition to repeal Prop. 4. 

“They’ve gone from trusting the process to fighting for a partisan outcome,” Moore said. “Utahns have once again engaged in the initiative process, and it looks like they’ve gathered enough signatures to reconsider Proposition 4. Whether one supports repeal or opposes it, the right response is the same: trust the people.”

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In a statement to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday, Moore’s campaign ripped Lisonbee and others for attacking him on Prop. 4, reiterating that the incumbent lawmaker holds Trump’s endorsement.

“Blake supported an independent advisory commission in 2018 to increase transparency in the redistricting process, expressed tremendous frustration with Judge Gibson’s decision, and maintains that the Legislature has the Constitutional Authority to draw maps,” campaign spokesman Matt Lusty said.