As Gov. Cox projected to win, challenger Phil Lyman says, ‘I’m not going to concede tonight’

Gov. Spencer Cox took a commanding lead over state Rep. Phil Lyman and The Associated Press declared him the winner of the race, but Lyman was not ready to concede on Tuesday.

“We always believe that, in the end, truth will win, and we proved that again tonight,” Cox said from his election night party at the headquarters of his campaign consultants in the heart of Salt Lake City.

Unofficial results, with returns from all of Utah’s 29 counties, showed Cox so far claiming 56.57% of votes and Lyman with 41.01%.

“The destruction of institutions, destroying trust in our neighbors, destroying trust in our fellow Americans destroying trust in the institutions that have made us the greatest nation on Earth and the greatest state in the nation is not healthy for any of us,” Cox said of the race, which was marred by Lyman’s casting doubt on the election process.

In Highland, holding styrofoam plates heaped with barbecued meats, attendees at Lyman’s election night party cheered as the polls closed at 8 p.m. But supporters seemed incredulous as Cox took a lead as the ballots were counted.

Early on, Lyman told reporters he was waiting to see results from Utah’s more rural counties, where voters have turned out for former President Donald Trump. But even after the AP called the race for Cox, Lyman said, “I’m not going to concede tonight.”

Later, bidding goodnight to supporters, Lyman clarified, “I told everybody at the debates that I would not concede until we verified the results in the election, and I think that’s a fair request.”

He told the crowd that his campaign is suing over the signatures Cox collected to get on the ballot, seeking to confirm their validity. He also hinted at raising additional challenges of the election process in court.

Those signatures have become a point of fixation for Lyman, who has increasingly shifted the focus of his campaign toward questioning their validity as the latest in a series of efforts to cast doubt on the election process. Lyman’s running mate, Natalie Clawson, submitted a public records request to obtain signature packets.

Under Utah law, signatures collected by candidates seeking ballot access are classified as “protected” records.

Davis County Clerk Brian McKenzie — whose office independently processed candidates’ signature petitions, including the governor’s — said unequivocally in a statement Friday that Cox’s campaign had gathered the signatures needed to run.

“There have been questions raised about the validity of candidate petition signatures verified by Davis County,” McKenzie wrote. “I affirm that each signature was reviewed by trained election workers and either validated or rejected in accordance with the requirements set forth by Utah law. I further affirm that each candidate who qualified for the ballot through this process submitted a sufficient number of valid signatures.”

Lyman, from southern Utah, gathered with supporters at the home of a woman who was once speculated to become a Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member.

Sara Pierce, who appeared in a few episodes of the TV show’s first season, is not a permanent cast member. The possibility of her becoming one seemingly disappeared after she was spotted at the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol over the certification of President Joe Biden’s election.

The primary election results show the diverging political attitudes of the average Utah Republican voter and Republican delegates in the state, who overwhelmingly rejected Cox at the party’s April nominating convention while two-thirds gave Lyman their support.

Lyman has challenged Cox from the right, criticizing him for a 2022 veto of a ban on transgender girls participating in high school sports. The lawmaker has leaned into his arrest on charges surrounding an illegal ATV protest on federal land, for which former President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2020.

Anticipating the boos that he endured at county GOP conventions to resurface at the state convention, Cox used his speech to take aim at his delegate critics.

“Maybe you’re booing me because you hate that I signed the largest tax cut in Utah history. Maybe you hate that I signed constitutional carry into law. Maybe you hate that we ended CRT, DEI and ESG,” Cox said. “Or maybe you hate that I don’t hate enough.”

His comments earned the ire of party leaders throughout the state, who took the remarks as a snub. At the time, Cox had already qualified for the ballot by collecting signatures from registered Republican voters.

Lyman’s claims of election interference began after state elections office employees stopped his first running mate pick from joining the ballot because he didn’t meet the constitutional requirements for candidacy.

Layne Bangerter, who previously served as former President Donald Trump’s campaign director, told The Salt Lake Tribune that he moved to Utah from Idaho in 2021 — although he used an Idaho address in February 2022 to donate to Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador. The Utah Constitution says candidates for governor and lieutenant governor must have been “a resident citizen of the state for five years next preceding the election.”

Even after an independent adviser overseeing the election and a district court judge agreed that it was appropriate to keep the pick from filing for candidacy, Lyman has continued to call the decision “politically motivated election interference.”

When a reporter from The Tribune asked him after a televised debate whether he would honor the electoral outcome, Lyman responded, “I will say this: I will be checking the results of the election.”

Incumbent Cox responded to a similar question saying, “I assure you, I will accept the results of this election, I will accept the results of federal elections, I accepted the results of the elections of four years ago and nothing’s changed.”

Republicans spreading doubts about election security, he added, is “frustrating” for him as a Republican because he sees those ideas as hurting the party’s electoral chances.

“We don’t win any votes by telling people that their votes don’t count,” Cox said. “In fact, we lose votes. People think, ‘Well, why should I show up?’ when time and time again, those allegations have been proven completely unfounded.”

Tuesday’s winner will face Democratic state lawmaker Brian King in the November general election.