Utah Representative Phil Lyman continued his campaign against the validity of Utah Governor Spencer Cox’s reelection with another appeal to Utah’s Supreme Court in early August; in his most recent filing to the Supreme Court, Lyman petitioned the court to invalidate the results of the recent Primary Election, remove Cox from office entirely and to put Lyman on the ballot for the upcoming general elections. The court denied Lyman’s request, stating that he had no factual basis on which to frame his allegations of electoral misconduct on Cox’s part, and that he had no authority to access the private records regarding the signatures that qualified Cox as a candidate.
Lyman has since begun a write-in campaign, which has caused some discontent within the Republican party for its potential to siphon votes away from the Republican Cox campaign, giving the advantage to Democratic opponent Brian King. Lyman’s campaign has shown repeated support on social media for a Democrat win in the upcoming election, however, responding to posts on X criticizing Cox and demonstrating a preference for King. In response to one such post, Lyman referred to Cox as a “dishonest Democrat” and that he would prefer King as “an honest one,” and in a follow-up post called voting for King over Cox “logical.” In social media posts since his write-in campaign announcement, Lyman has called Utah’s electoral apparatus corrupt, and insisted that the Republican party representation at the state level are not true conservatives.
Lieutenant Governor Dierdre Henderson said in a social media post on the topic, “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. 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 courts - we win or lose at the ballot box.”
