Gov. Spencer Cox again skips Republicans’ state gathering

After years of being greeted with boos at the Utah Republican Party’s annual convention, GOP Gov. Spencer Cox skipped the gathering Saturday for the second time since becoming governor.

The governor’s absence came as the leading Republican opponent to his reelection bid last year, Phil Lyman, made a failed bid for state party chair, and as delegates weighed an amendment to temporarily boot signature-gathering candidates, like Cox, from the party.

Although he did not personally make an appearance, Cox’s campaign had a booth at the convention alongside other Utah elected officials.

Current Utah law allows Republican candidates to qualify for the ballot either via gathering signatures or winning at convention after a legislative compromise to preserve the caucus-convention system — a measure that has created heartburn in the party since the passage of a law, known as SB54, over a decade ago. The state party’s constitution mentions only the convention path.

A spokesperson for Cox’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry as to why the governor did not attend this year’s event. He last skipped the convention in 2022, and when delegates shouted him down last year — for the third time — Cox drew party hardliners’ ire when he responded, “Maybe you hate that I don’t hate enough.”

The governor’s official calendar, shared with reporters on a weekly basis, did not indicate that Cox had any conflicting engagements this weekend.

Cox was among a number of Utah’s top Republican leaders who filed to gather signatures ahead of last year’s election, including U.S. Sen. John Curtis, U.S. Rep. Blake Moore and Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz — as well as Lyman when he launched his gubernatorial campaign. Although a party constitutional amendment to ban signature-gathering in the party failed, delegates voted to amend the party platform to reiterate its rejection of candidate petitions.

Rob Axson wins reelection as GOP chair

More than 2,600 Republican delegates — about two-thirds of the GOP total — gathered in Orem Saturday morning for the convention, where attendees reelected Rob Axson as the Utah GOP chair for another two-year term.

Axson bested Lyman by winning 1,340 delegate votes to Lyman’s 1,215 — about 52.3% to 47.5%.

“I am committed to building this party,” Axson said in a speech ahead of the vote. “Delegates matter. Precincts matter. I stand before you seeking personal support as we continue to build the Utah Republican Party. As expected, some have attacked me [and] my record, and that’s okay.”

Incumbent party secretary Stafford Palmieri Sievert was also reelected, beating former party secretary Olivia Horlacher Williams, according to election officials.

As voters were counted, delegates who remained after casting their vote heard from Curtis, as well as U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, U.S. Reps. Mike Kennedy and Burgess Owens and statewide elected officials including Schultz, Attorney General Derek Brown, Auditor Tina Cannon and Treasurer Marlo Oaks.

But those remarks by the state’s top elected officials were only heard by a portion of Republican delegates after many appeared to leave after casting their ballots.

Making party business a priority

Ahead of the convention’s commencement Saturday, a playlist of late-aughts pop songs played through the UCCU Center, including LGBTQ+ anthem “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga, which includes the line, “No matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgender life, I’m on the right track, baby, I was born to survive.”

As elected officials chatted with attendees, a giant photo of President Donald Trump — and a photo of Trump’s social post endorsing Axson’s reelection — welcomed delegates to candidate booths. At a nearby merch table, Make America Great Again, Make America Healthy Again, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and DOGE hats were up for sale.

Additionally, delegates could purchase “Trump 2028” hats advocating for an unconstitutional third term for the president.

Shortly after standing for the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem — and a year following a marathon 2024 convention that kept delegates until midnight — delegates quickly moved to amend the day’s agenda to topload official business, including amending the party’s constitution.

The proposal to move that business ahead of speeches from elected state leaders and Utah’s all-GOP congressional delegation inspired some fear that, during a non-election year, delegates would leave before hearing from their elected leaders.

Delegates also voted down a resolution calling on the state’s federal delegation to “oppose and condemn any measure or action” that would allow the president of the United States to serve more than two terms.

“I’m against this resolution because I view it as just basically a counter signal to President Trump,” one delegate from Salt Lake County said. “And you know, if Trump is still floating running for a third term, we can address that two years from now.”

Among the other early business was a proposed amendment to the party’s constitution that would have revoked the party membership of any candidate who gathered signatures in order to qualify for the ballot, but the amendment’s sponsor, Arnold Gaunt, proposed striking it from the agenda.

“We are trying to solve a problem that’s been around for many years,” Gaunt said. “There’s been some very interesting developments that have occurred this week before the convention, and there’s a better path for responding to the problem than what is now proposed.”

Gaunt’s amendment would have, for one year, revoked the party membership of any person “who seeks public office … by any mechanism other than that specifically provided within this Constitution.”

Additionally, the amendment would have lowered the threshold for candidates to proceed directly to the primary election from the convention down to 50% from 60%.

Despite some pushback, the delegates ultimately voted with Gaunt and the amendment was removed from the agenda.

Later, however, delegates considered another amendment related to signature gathering, this one amending the party platform, though not its constitution.

“[W]e support Utah’s caucus system of neighborhood meetings to elect wise delegates to vet the candidates for public offices,” the proposed amendment read. “We use delegate conventions to choose the best candidates as our party nominees. We support closed primaries when there are two well-qualified candidates selected by the convention. We reject any method that bypasses our convention process, including the gathering of signatures.”

The amendment passed on a majority vote.