Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s campaign headquarters in downtown Salt Lake City was vandalized Sunday night, police say.
“Rough morning for our team and campaign headquarters,” Cox posted to social media alongside images of smashed and broken glass at his campaign office. “This person has targeted me and my family before and, fortunately, is now in custody.”
Salt Lake City police said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune that officers responded to a reported burglary at Cox’s campaign headquarters at 11:32 p.m. on Sunday night. When they arrived, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper had taken a person into custody in connection with the call who was suffering an apparent mental health crisis. The trooper had begun a process to have the person involuntarily committed, police said.
The identity of the person has not been released because no charges have been filed.
Cox’s campaign and UHP, which handles security for Cox, did not immediately respond to questions from The Tribune.
The governor, who was first elected in 2020, is up for reelection next year.
The highway patrol has beefed up security for Cox since he was first elected. In 2021, Utah lawmakers approved nearly $500,000 in security upgrades for Cox’s home in Fairview at taxpayer expense without publicly disclosing that appropriation. Plans are in the works for a major renovation of the Governor’s Mansion in Salt Lake City that would completely seal off the first family from the public with walls around the property and a new underground parking garage.
That tightened security does not extend to Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson. On the last day of the 2023 session, Utah lawmakers quietly stripped funding for her full-time security detail that has been in place since shortly after the 2020 election.
Such politically-motivated vandalism is not unheard of in Utah. Earlier this year, the home of state Sen. Mike Kennedy, R-Alpine, was vandalized in apparent retaliation for his bill that banned gender-affirming care for minors in Utah, and Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake City, reportedly had his car tires deflated during his 2022 campaign.
In 2020, windows were smashed at the downtown Salt Lake City offices of then-Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg’s campaign.
This story is breaking and may be updated.
