A Tale of Two (or Maybe Three or Four or Five) LDS Politicians

 

In a July 10, 2024, interview with CNN, Utah Governor Spencer Cox stated that he would not vote for Donald Trump, although he also claimed he wanted Trump to win. “I do want Donald Trump to succeed,” said Cox. “I want my party to win. We desperately need the right people in the right positions. I’m very anxious for who he picks as vice president, that’s going to make a big difference.”

I guess Cox is much more excited about “Cat Lady” JD Vance than a large majority of Americans, because Cox changed his stance on Trump the next week, pledging his support for the former president.

Now, contrast Cox’s wishy-washy but eventually willing support of Trump with this clear-eyed statement made in a speech at an Arizona rally of the Harris-Walz campaign. The speaker? John Giles, lifelong Republican, mayor of Mesa, and graduate of BYU. “I do not recognize my party. The Republican Party has been taken over by extremists that are committed to forcing people in the center of the political spectrum out of the party. I have something to say to those of us who are in the political middle: You don’t owe a damn thing to that political party. . . . You don’t owe anything to a party that is out of touch and is hell-bent on taking our country backward. And by all means, you owe no displaced loyalty to a candidate that is morally and ethically bankrupt. . . . In the spirit of the great Senator John McCain, please join me in putting country over party and stopping Donald Trump, and protecting the rule of law, protecting our Constitution, and protecting the democracy of this great country. That is why I’m standing with Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.”

Both of these men are Latter-day Saints. One is willing to put country above party. One is definitely more concerned with reelection and places party above country. Giles’s stand may end his political career. Likely, Arizona Republicans will give him the same treatment they gave Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who refused to overturn a free and fair election in 2020. Bowers, of course, was also LDS and ran for an Arizona senate seat in 2022 but lost badly in the primary, largely due to his refusal to cave in to pressure from Trump and Rudy Giuliani to throw the election. Bowers, despite his ethical stand on election shenanigans, was a Trump supporter.

Then there is Phil Lyman, another BYU graduate, who lost to Spencer Cox in the 2024 primary for Utah governor. Lyman, a rabid Trump supporter (he was pardoned by Trump for organizing and leading an illegal protest on federal lands), has taken many pages out of the Trump playbook. He is currently suing to have Cox disqualified on shaky legal grounds and has announced that he will run for governor as a write-in candidate.

I can’t help but wonder about the reasoning of these four Latter-day Saint politicians and how they interpret the First Presidency statement issued on June 1, 2023, which included the following counsel: “Members should also study candidates carefully and vote for those who have demonstrated integrity, compassion, and service to others, regardless of party affiliation. Merely voting a straight ticket or voting based on ‘tradition’ without careful study of candidates and their positions on important issues is a threat to democracy and inconsistent with revealed standards (see Doctrine and Covenants 98:10).” D&C 98:10 says, “Wherefore, honest men [and women] and wise men [and women] should be sought for diligently, and good men [and women] and wise men [and women] ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil.”

The First Presidency, of course, cannot support or oppose a particular party or candidate, but this statement does everything short of naming Trump in telling members they should not vote for him. He is the exact opposite of what this statement and the cited scriptural verse encourage. It cannot be a coincidence that this statement was issued as Trump’s campaign started heating up. It also followed on the heels of his first felony indictments, with many more on the horizon.

It goes without saying that the First Presidency didn’t issue this statement because they were worried about too many Latter-day Saints voting straight-ticket Democrat. This letter was aimed directly at the majority of Saints, who happen to be Republican, many of whom do vote straight ticket because they are woefully uninformed or merely uninterested in politics. Many others have convinced themselves that they can vote for a corrupt and amoral man simply because they “like his policies.”

Now, what about that fifth LDS politician? Well, I’m hopeful that Phil Lyman’s write-in campaign is successful enough to split the Republican vote and allow Brian King, the Democratic candidate, to win the governorship in Utah. Wouldn’t that be a pleasant surprise?