diff --git a/internal/consensus/state.go b/internal/consensus/state.go
index 83a760287..320042d30 100644
--- a/internal/consensus/state.go
+++ b/internal/consensus/state.go
@@ -255,6 +255,15 @@ func (cs *State) updateStateFromStore() error {
 		return nil
 	}
 
+	eq, err := state.Equals(cs.state)
+	if err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("comparing state: %w", err)
+	}
+	// if the new state is equivalent to the old state, we should not trigger a state update.
+	if eq {
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	// We have no votes, so reconstruct LastCommit from SeenCommit.
 	if state.LastBlockHeight > 0 {
 		cs.reconstructLastCommit(state)