At a news conference in the days after the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox took to the podium to deliver updates about the case — and to urge Americans to find a way, together, out of this dark moment.
“There is one person responsible for what happened here, and that person is now in custody and will be charged soon and will be held accountable,” Cox said. “And yet, all of us have an opportunity right now to do something different.”
“We can always point the finger at the other side,” Cox added later, “and at some point we have to find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse.”
Kirk’s assassination has sparked national mourning but also vitriol, with some Republican leaders including President Donald Trump blaming the “radical left” for the shooting.
But Cox has stepped forward as healer-in-chief.
In days filled with division, disparagement and calls for revenge by some other politicians and public figures, Cox’s civil but sober tone brought moral clarity to a moment of angst and broke through the rancor, members of both parties said in interviews.
“That’s who he is,” said Lincoln Shurtz, a partner at Utah-based lobbying firm Lincoln Hill Holdings who has known Cox, a Republican, for two decades. “He thinks we can disagree but still collaborate on things we do disagree on.”
After the 31-year-old Kirk was shot and killed at a public event on a college campus in his state, Cox stepped into the lead role in televised news conferences during and after the ensuing manhunt. He commanded the stage as top national law enforcement officials like FBI Director Kash Patel looked on.
In addition to providing updates on the case, Cox used his speaking time to urge Americans to look in the mirror and seek their better angels. He told them to shut off their social media, which he referred to as a “cancer,” and instead hug a family member and “touch grass.”
“Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture very different than what we are suffering through right now, not by pretending differences don’t matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations,” Cox said, directing his remarks to younger people.
“I hear all the time that words are violence, words are not violence,” Cox added. “Violence is violence.”
Even as Trump took on a sharp-edged approach in the immediacy after Kirk’s death, it was notable that no one from the White House or law enforcement moved to diminish Cox’s role, allowing lengthy remarks each day, even as they clashed with aspects of Trump’s message. A senior White House official told NBC News they felt Cox has done a “tremendously good job” handling the aftermath of Kirk’s killing.
Members of both parties have offered accolades for Cox, saying he offered refreshing ideas as the nation’s political discourse has turned increasingly toxic. That included Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat and friend of Cox who spoke to the Utah governor by phone after the tragedy and told NBC News they share some important values.
“I pray for Governor Cox as he leads his state following a heinous act of political violence. Even though we belong to different parties, he and I share a common vision for this country — one where we resolve our differences peacefully at the ballot box and strive to work together, regardless of ideology,” Moore said in a statement to NBC News. “I know he will do everything in his power to bring leadership, comfort, unity, and justice in this moment, as we seek healing.”
Cox has had an evolving relationship with Trump. He endorsed Marco Rubio during the 2016 presidential race, when Cox was Utah’s lieutenant governor, and then backed Ted Cruz when Rubio dropped out. At the time, Cox criticized Trump’s “decorum.”
Cox has said he did not vote for Trump in either of his first two campaigns, but he did support the president in 2024.
Cox has long sought opportunities to inject a bipartisan approach into politics, including launching an ad campaign in 2020 in which he and his Democratic opponent for governor both agreed they’d accept the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has partnered with Sen. Chris Murphy to tackle social issues like the loneliness epidemic and social media’s impact on children. He also launched a “disagree better” campaign that aimed to keep opposing sides talking to each other.
Through it all, he remained politically popular in his state. In July, Morning Consult polling found that he had a 54% approval rating among all registered voters in Utah, a number that jumped to 74% with the state’s Republicans.
Cox is broadly viewed as a consistent Republican, but has done things that have angered the party’s right flank.
Most notably, Cox vetoed legislation in 2022 that banned transgender students from playing girls’ sports, saying that he wanted to be on the side of acceptance. He cited statistics showing that out of 75,000 high school students participating in athletics, just one was a transgender student who played girls sports.
“I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do,” he said at the time. “But I want them to live. And all the research shows that even a little acceptance and connection can reduce suicidality significantly.”
The veto was later overturned by the Utah’s Republican-dominated state legislature.
Those kinds of positions have created pockets of conservative opposition to Cox, even though he is generally well-regarded in his party.
“Through the national lens, Spencer Cox is a conservative Republican, but in Utah politics it would put him within the party he is in on the moderate side,” Shurtz said. “Among Republicans in the state he is seen as widely successful and well-supported. But there are factions in the base that feel like he is maybe not as forceful on, and — these are my words — fringe issues.”
“It’s when the governor does stuff like he did today,” he added of Cox’s unifying tone. “There are some folks on the right who don’t like that. Their answer is always ‘go kick them in the teeth.’”
In that vein, Steve Bannon, a conservative commentator and an architect of Trump’s first run for office, expressed anger and disappointment at Cox on Friday, calling him “woke” and a “governor who’s also known to be, I think, particularly obnoxious.”
“We don’t need a governor, a political figure, to step up … and give us a political pep talk and a rally and ‘let’s all come together,’” Bannon said on his War Room podcast on Friday, saying that Kirk was killed “in cold blood.”
Still, there is some hunger in the Republican Party for a leader who doesn’t stoke anger.
“A leader should be seeking unity, not retribution,” former Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said in an interview before Cox’s appearance at the Friday morning news conference. “And it’s unity in opposing all political violence. It’s a tragic situation. But out of the tragedy comes an opportunity to make this point clearly on both sides: We need to change the trajectory.”
Portman, who after retiring from the Senate in 2022 launched a center at the University of Cincinnati that focuses on finding civility and common ground in government, said Trump’s initial response to the crisis might have been colored by the “personal anguish and sorrow” of losing a friend.
Democrats also chimed in to praise Cox’s remarks.
“I know this guy is a Republican and all but I swear you could win all the electoral votes with this message in 28,” said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he appreciated Cox “calling for moral clarity at a time of uncertainty.”
And Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro reached out to Cox to offer any assistance he could, a person familiar with their conversation said.
“I think his words have been healing,” Shapiro told CBS News. “I think you can contrast not just with the president’s words, but with some of the dangerous rhetoric that we’ve seen online, the dangerous rhetoric we’ve seen some from some elected leaders.”
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