Two days after his loss to Gov. Spencer Cox in the Republican gubernatorial primary, Phil Lyman is still suggesting the election may not be on the up and up and is refusing to concede.
On Thursday, Lyman posted a lengthy video to YouTube reacting to Cox’s victory speech, complaining about how quickly the incumbent’s election was called after the polls closed.
According to unofficial results, Cox currently leads Lyman by nearly 12 points. He noted that those numbers have narrowed since Cox declared victory on Tuesday night.
“When they called this, it was about 60% for Cox and 40% for me. Now he’s down to about 56% and dropping,” Lyman said. “The only thing we know for sure in Utah is that we’re being lied to.”
Lyman also lashed out at the media for being insufficiently skeptical of Cox’s win.
“There’s a lot of pressure on these guys to continue the narrative, a lot of pressure on the press to make sure they are not proven wrong on this. They’re not unbiased,” Lyman added. “This is not an unbiased election, and it should be.”
In the 34-minute video, Lyman also repeatedly insulted Cox, calling him a “weasel” and “smug” and “Gavin Newsom 2.0,” referring to the Democratic governor of California.
Only days before the election, Lyman’s campaign launched a last-minute effort to cast doubt on the signatures Cox gathered to qualify for the ballot. Lyman’s campaign suggested the signatures may not have been valid and claimed Gathering, the signature-gathering company Cox hired, was under criminal investigation in Washington County for irregularities.
While those claims seem explosive, they don’t withstand scrutiny.
Davis County Clerk Brian McKenzie, whose office verified signatures on Cox’s petition, explained in a Facebook post that the verification process is extensive and not open to the kind of manipulation Lyman claims. Tanner Leatham, president of Gathering, told The Salt Lake Tribune that an independent contractor his company hired to collect signatures in another race did not follow company guidelines, resulting in many of those signatures being rejected. Leatham said he is not aware of any criminal investigation involving his firm.
Before the election, Lyman’s campaign filed an open records request under Utah’s Government Records Access Management Act (GRAMA) law to gain access to the original signature forms Cox submitted to appear on the primary election ballot. On Thursday, Lyman continued to suggest problems with Cox’s signatures and called for an audit to ensure everything was legitimate.
“Let’s take a look at the signatures. Open up those packets. If you want to have a qualified third-party professional that we agree upon, let’s do that,” Lyman said. “I just want to see the signatures. I just want some election integrity.”
Lyman has flirted with election denialism several times over the past few years. He’s spoken at several events focused on “the big lie” that massive fraud tipped the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. In 2021, he attempted to leverage his position as a state lawmaker to gain access to the personal information and voting history of every registered voter in Utah, even those who asked that those records not be released publicly.
In a text message to The Salt Lake Tribune, Lyman said he was still considering legal action following his apparent loss.
“Mainly dealing with the signatures. So maybe it will get resolved via GRAMA,” Lyman texted.
Follow @@SchottHappens