Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s campaign to turn down the nation’s political temperature has long stood out as a rarity in a Republican Party led by President Donald Trump.
But Cox’s commanding role as the nation grapples with the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk gives his calls to end the cycle of violent division a new prominence.
It also laid bare a sharp divide within the GOP over the way forward, even as prominent Democrats and some Republicans praised Cox’s performance before a national audience Friday.
Cox said Americans faced a decision: “Is this the end of a dark chapter of our history, or the beginning?”
Among those who count Cox as a close friend is Wes Moore, Maryland’s Democratic governor. Moore said he thought Cox had shown “the importance of being authentic.”
“Spencer Cox is Spencer Cox,” Moore told CNN on Friday. “And he doesn’t change depending on who the audience is, and he doesn’t change depending on who he’s standing in front of. And that’s one of the things I love about him most.”
“He’s just a deeply good human being,” he added, “and I’m thankful that in this moment of real tension in our country, that Spencer is helping to lead us through.”
Cox implored the country to dedicate themselves to end a cycle of violent division, echoing his longstanding calls for civility in the nation’s political discourse and urging people to “disagree better.”
“I desperately call on every American – Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us – to please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me,” Cox said Friday, sharing a lesson he recounted from Kirk: “Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.”
While the governor has built a strong conservative record, he has faced at times sharp criticism from Trump-aligned Republicans. The disconnect raises the question of whether there is truly an audience inside the GOP for the type of message Cox has sought to deliver.
In 2022, as Cox was about to veto a ban on transgender youth athletes playing in girls’ sports, Kirk tweeted: “Utah Governor Spencer Cox should be expelled from the Republican party.” Cox wrote in his message to legislative leaders that he had tried “to err on the side of kindness, mercy and compassion.” Still, the legislature overrode his veto.
Steve Bannon, the Kirk and Trump ally, alluded to that veto on his “War Room” podcast Friday and called Cox “a governor who’s also known, I think, to be particularly obnoxious.”
“We don’t need a governor to step up and give us basically a political pep talk and a rally and ‘let’s just all come together,’” Bannon said.
Underscoring the divisions among conservatives, Utah Sen. John Curtis, a Republican, sounded similar notes to his state’s governor Friday on CNN.
“Somehow, as a society, we need to figure out how to turn down the dial,” Curtis said. “Every one of us, every morning, should wake up, look in the mirror, and see what we are doing in our own personal relationships.”
Govs. Wes Moore, D-Md., right, and Spencer Cox, R-Utah, participate in a discussion hosted by The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., on “The State of Bipartisanship in Washington,” on Wednesday, February 21, 2024. – Tom Williams/AP/File
An outlier often at odds with Trump
Cox on Friday did not directly address Trump’s earlier suggestion of blaming the “radical left” for Kirk’s murder. Yet his words stood in stark contrast to the president’s.
Despite leading one of the nation’s reddest states, Cox has not followed most of the party in aligning himself closely with Trump.
Cox supported Marco Rubio in 2016 before switching his endorsement to Ted Cruz in the final stretch of the Republican presidential primary. At the time, he said he could not support Trump, saying: “He does not represent neither goodness nor kindness.”
A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cox frequently spoke out against Trump’s behavior and rhetoric. He built a political brand that extended beyond party labels.
In the final stretch of his 2020 campaign for governor, Cox cut an ad with his Democratic opponent in which the two vowed to respect the outcome of the presidential election, and said they wanted Utah to serve as an example for the nation.
“Although we sit on different sides of the aisle, we are both committed to American civility and a peaceful transition of power,” Cox said in the ad.
He didn’t endorse Trump last year until after the assassination attempt on the then-former president’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“Because of that miracle,” Cox said, “you have the opportunity to do something that no other person on earth can do right now: unify and save our country.”
Cox has spent years urging Americans to embrace a more civil approach to politics and disagreement.
As chairman of the National Governors Association, he launched the “Disagree Better” initiative aimed at encouraging civility. He’s filmed videos with Democratic governors to encourage Americans to disagree with each other without vitriol. One alongside Colorado Gov. Jared Polis featured Cox saying the two were “here to help save your family dinners.” Another, with Moore, featured the two discussing their love for basketball and joking about their own baldness.
“Politics is important, but it shouldn’t define us or destroy our relationships,” Cox says in the video.
Cox and Moore were together last week for a National Press Club lunch, where they discussed the inevitability of crises that governors face. Moore’s came last March, when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed. Cox’s came days after that conversation.
Moore said he reached out to Cox as soon as he heard about Kirk’s assassination, and the two have spoken every day since.
“I prayed for him,” Moore said. “And then I just told him, I said, ‘Listen, the only thing I ask is, just make sure you’re taking care of yourself, because your people are going to need you right now.’”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, with Utah Department of Public Safety Beau Mason, Sheriff Mike Smith, and FBI Director Kash Patel, speaks during a press conference announcing details on the suspect in the shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah, U.S. September 12, 2025. – Cheney Orr/Reuters
‘Log off, turn off, touch grass’
Cox on Friday also renewed his call for all Americans, particularly the nation’s youth, to disengage from social media and forge a connection with whom they agree and disagree.
“You are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage. It feels like rage is the only option,” Cox said. “Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is 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 described social media as “a cancer,” and urged those watching to “log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community.”
That comment won the Utah governor plaudits from one of the Senate’s more liberal and online Democratic voices. Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz posted on X: “I know this guy is a Republican and all but I swear you could win all the electoral votes with this message in 28.”
Curtis, the Republican senator, said Cox’s urging of Americans to sign off social media was “one of the wisest things I think he said today.”
Cox also drew praise from conservative media outlets for his highlighting of Utah’s reaction to Kirk’s death. “There was no rioting. There was no looting. There were no cars set on fire. There was no violence. There were vigils and prayers and people coming together to share the humanity,” he said.
Moore, often mentioned as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender himself, said if Cox — who won a hard-fought 2020 gubernatorial primary — wants to run for the White House, he shouldn’t be underestimated.
“Anyone who thinks that his message could not resonate in the Republican Party, I think you’re underestimating the hunger the country has for unified leadership — for a person who brings us together rather than tearing us apart,” Moore said. “And I think you’re also underestimating Spencer Cox.”
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