You’d think that if 62 percent of voters are upset, incumbents would pay the price for it. But not here in Utah, where we say “all is well” — even when it isn’t.
A poll released in late April reported that 62 percent of Utahns said we were on the wrong track — the first time a majority has ever felt this way. The top concerns were: 1) our current housing affordability crisis, 2) politicians who don’t listen, 3) inflation and 4) government overreach. And the center of this Venn Diagram is Spencer Cox (“R”), who — despite Utahns frustration with the fruit of his works — could get re-nominated with … 62 percent of the vote.
He’d then coast to reelection, probably by at least a 20-point margin. And since Utah governors aren’t term-limited, there’d be nothing to stop Cox from running again … and again … and again. Eventually, he might even get comfortable enough in the governor’s office to show his true colors and officially switch to the Democratic Party.
It seems peculiar for a red state to be as comfortable with a governor so liberal that Tucker Carlson called him a “cut-rate Gavin Newsom imitator” and Time Magazine praised him for being woke. But Utah is a peculiar place — at least for now. If Cox isn’t replaced in the Republican primary this month, he is on track to turning us into yet another hopelessly blue state. It’s weird that so many Utahns have missed the warning signs. Let’s run through them real quick:
Cox is (basically) a Democrat
Cox gushes over failed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and snaps enthusiastic selfies with Joe Biden while “praying for him to be successful.” His wife Abby Cox’s podcast covered liberal topics like unconscious racial bias and reinforcing gender dysphoria in children. His campaign is bankrolled by far-left megadonors like the Cumming family, which includes a former board chair for Planned Parenthood of Utah. This perhaps explains why Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson joined Democrats for a pro-abortion walk-out a few years ago.
Cox supports mass third-world migration
Cox wants to import future voters who will accept Democrats’ radical agenda. He wrote in the Washington Post that Utah needs 100,000 immigrants — because more people are the solution to a housing crisis — and we became a sanctuary state under him. Recent headlines and video have captured how illegal immigrants are being bussed and flown in with the support of government officials.
Cox is an authoritarian
During the COVID lockdowns, Cox pushed harmful mandates — telling Utahns to “wear their damn masks!” — then posted pictures of himself without one. Cox wants both the attorney general and the state school board to be appointed by him, rather than elected by the people. Utah’s elections are run by his lieutenant governor, and Cox squashed efforts to put that in the hands of an independent agency.
A crybully, Cox suffers no dissent under the mantra that we must “disagree better.” Exploiting heritage Utahns’ pathological need to be seen as nice, even by people who hate us, he wants you to know if you disagree with him, it’s your fault.
Blaming someone else for your own bad behavior is one of the textbook signs of an abusive relationship.
Cox is a DEI acolyte
Cox has implemented a state office of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” taken COVID funds to help pay for DEI programs in public education, and supported the Utah Jazz’s racist policy of discriminating against white children. When race hustlers attacked a student with special needs at a BYU game, Cox joined the mob and called the youth a “racist as*hole” on social media.
Because publicly attacking a special needs kid is how you “disagree better.”
Cox supports LGBT grooming
Cox is firmly on the side of a for-profit industry that mutilates children and foments violent extremism. He encourages gender dysphoria, wants male athletes to infiltrate girls sports, “shares his pronouns” with impressionable children, doesn’t want to ban porn in schools, and has recognized Pride Month every year in office (except this year, for some reason).
Note that in the same poll we mentioned at the start, the issue dead last on Utahns’ list of concerns was transgender “rights.”
By their fruits ye shall know them
Housing prices have spiked under Cox. Birth rates in Utah have dropped below replacement levels. Salt Lake City is now one of the most dangerous cities in the country. Those who have been paying attention are well aware of Cox’s role in this. At the state party’s convention in April, high-information delegates rejected Cox in favor of challenger, Rep. Phil Lyman, by a vote of about 70 percent to 30 percent.
However, because the business interests in Utah can buy their candidates’ way onto primary ballots, Cox could still become the Republican nominee for governor. A primary vote between Cox and Lyman will conclude on June 25, where low-information voters and Democrats who have switched sides could force Utah to accept another four years of “leadership” from an effeminate man who only won in 2020 by 1.8 percent in a four-way primary with no runoff.
Cox tries to paint himself as a moderate, a political position which is impossible in the current environment. When one side is desperately trying to save the world’s oldest constitutional republic and the other side is conspiring to fundamentally transform it, there can be no middle ground.
Jared Whitley has worked in the U.S. Senate, White House and defense industry. He has an MBA from Hult Business School in Dubai, and was recently named best columnist in the Intermountain West by the Top of the Rockies competition.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.
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