Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, meeting with reporters the morning after Election Day, beamed at not just his own victory, but that of Donald Trump — the president-elect who Cox endorsed for the first time a few months ahead of the election, flipping from his role as a longtime critic.
“I feel like the race car with a parachute behind us, and in January, that parachute is going to be removed,” Cox said to the cameras from his office at the Utah Capitol, citing dozens of lawsuits the state has filed against the President Joe Biden administration.
The governor, who promoted the mantra “disagree better” during his term as head of the National Governors Association, urged Utahns who didn’t vote for the ex-president to not to adopt a “fatalist” perspective: “Our country is not great because of our president. There’s good argument to be made of the opposite, that that’s the least impressive thing about our country over the past couple decades.”
And he said Democrats should “look in the mirror.”
“If you just chalk [Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss] up to inflation, you’re missing the message that should come out of this election season, and that is that people are tired of being told that they’re racist or misogynistic or homophobic.”
A Beehive State victory marks the third in a row for Trump.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) People celebrate Trump winning the presidency during a GOP election night watch party, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Draper.
The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement Wednesday afternoon, congratulating Trump for his election win.
“We invite all to pray for him, other elected officers, and leaders of nations around the world,” the statement read, adding that “praying for those in public office is a long tradition in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Given the difficult challenges of our day, it is vital that we look to God for guidance and blessing and seek to be peacemakers in our homes and communities.”
The church’s leaders also commended Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, “for her candidacy and thank her and President Joe Biden for their public service at the nation’s highest levels. We wish them both well for the years ahead. … May all our local, national, and world leaders be blessed with wisdom and judgment as they fulfill the great public trust afforded to them.”
Wins in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin put Trump over the threshold of 270 electoral votes, and major news outlets called the presidential race at around 3:38 a.m. Mountain time Wednesday. Fox News, however, projected Trump’s win before midnight.
Major news outlets called solidly red Utah for Trump shortly after 8 p.m. Mountain time Tuesday — after polls had officially closed, but before many people in line, particularly in Utah and Washington counties, had voted.
According to a tally posted at about 2 a.m. Wednesday, Trump and running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance had received 58.9% of the vote in Utah, compared to 38.9% for Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Between the Fox declaration and the other news outlets’ reporting, members of Utah’s all-Republican congressional delegation posted their congratulations on social media.
At 12:32 a.m., Rep. Celeste Maloy posted on X: “I look forward to working with [Trump] and his administration on issues critical to Utahns. He listened and responded to Utah when he was in office before, and I’m happy to help make that happen again.”
Sen. Mike Lee, on his personal X account, posted on X at 12:44 a.m.: “Note to Democrats: Americans don’t like socialism. Or inflation. Or border invasions. Or endless wars. Or race bating [sic]. Or presidents who try to jail their opponents. Or surgical mutilation of children. Or celebrating infanticide as a sacrament. Or tax hikes. Americans said ‘no!’”
Lee — who spent election night at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida — followed that at 1:32 a.m. with a sarcastic question about Harris: “Will she go back to her job at McDonalds?”
Rep. Blake Moore folded Trump’s win into his own reelection thank-you post on X, at 12:29 a.m.: “With President Trump in the White House, and the U.S. Senate in Republican control, I can’t wait to keep fighting for Utahns in the First District.”
But not all Utahns were joyous about Trump returning to Washington.
“Today is a day to feel our losses, deeply,” Utah author and environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams wrote Wednesday morning on X. “This is what it feels like to care and to love all that is vulnerable and at risk.”
Williams continued: “This, too, is what Democracy looks like — to believe, to enlist our courage with a sustained focus toward justice for all; to continue to do the work that is ours. It is never over. … This is not the end, nor the beginning, it is the truth of our lives. Our power lies in our capacity to keep loving and engaging with this beautiful, broken world. We can no longer look for leadership beyond ourselves. If we are present. we will know what to do.”
The popular “Radio From Hell” show on Salt Lake City radio station X96, whose hosts have regularly criticized Trump and Republicans, started their Wednesday broadcast with the Black Sabbath song “The Mob Rules.”
Co-host Gina Barberi said she went to bed Tuesday evening, and “I lay there awake and kept picking up my phone and thought, ‘maybe’” Harris could catch up. As the morning went on, she said, “I kept thinking, ‘Oh, my God.’”
Barberi’s co-host, Kerry Jackson, made a prediction: “You won’t recognize this country in about three years.”
