Republican infighting in Utah has resulted in GOP officials accusing a gubernatorial hopeful of trying to “steal” an election.
On Tuesday, the Utah Supreme Court rejected an attempt by Republican state Representative Phil Lyman to have Utah Governor Spencer Cox removed from office and prohibit other GOP candidates from appearing on November’s ballots.
In April, Lyman won the Utah GOP convention nomination with 67 percent of the caucus vote, but he went on to lose June’s Republican primary for the governorship. Cox, the incumbent, beat Lyman by 9 points—54 percent to 45 percent—amounting to a difference of more than 37,000 votes.
Under state law, Utah political candidates can earn a spot on the primary ballot by going through the caucus system or gathering signatures.
Lyman, who acted as his own lawyer in the case, raised questions about the validity of the signatures acquired by Cox’s campaign, arguing that Utah Republican Party bylaws say that a candidate who gets more than 60 percent at the party’s state convention becomes the GOP’s nominee.
The Utah Supreme Court, in rejecting Lyman’s challenge, said he cited “no authority to support his assertion that a political party’s internal rules override state election law.”
In a statement, Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson, whom Lyman also wanted removed from office for alleged “malfeasance,” attacked the state representative’s “frivolous” legal challenge.
“For all his talk of election integrity, Phil Lyman is the only candidate in the state who has actively tried to steal an election by demanding that the Supreme Court crown him the victor of a race he soundly lost,” Henderson said.
She added: “Every Utahn should be appalled by Lyman’s shameful disregard for the rule of law, the state constitution, and the will of the voters. In America, we don’t win elections through the courts—we win or lose at the ballot box.”
Lyman said in a statement on Monday that he still planned to run in Utah’s gubernatorial election in November as a write-in candidate and would “absolutely continue to fight.”
“Cox and Henderson continue to obstruct access to the names that signed his nomination petition; thus we cannot verify that he legitimately qualified for the primary ballot,” Lyman said.
He continued: “The primary election results cannot be verified because Cox and Henderson demand that county clerks withhold basic elections records. In the meantime, corruption runs unchecked across our state.
“We question not only the primary election results; we also reject the entire apparatus that allows corrupt establishment politicians to retain their power and influence year after year, without any transparency.”
Newsweek has contacted Lyman’s and Cox’s offices for comment via email.
Cox recently endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 election, after previously saying he would not vote for the former president in November and hadn’t voted for him in 2016 or 2020.
Cox said he changed his position in the wake of the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump in Pennsylvania.
“Now, because of that miracle, you have the opportunity to do something that no other person on earth can do right now: unify and save our country,” Cox wrote in a July 14 letter to Trump.
In November, Cox is set to face off against Brian King, the Democratic candidate in Utah’s gubernatorial race.
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