Spencer Cox Warned This Moment Was Coming — And He’s the Leader America Needs Right Now
Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R) has dedicated the last several years to fighting what he calls “toxic” partisanship, and urging Americans to find a way to “disagree better.” Before this week, Spencer was not grabbing headlines with his calls to tone down the vitriol in American life, but after the horrific shooting of Charlie Kirk in his state, people are heeding, or at least finally hearing his message.
In the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s killing, Cox addressed the press, saying, “This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.”
In his lengthy comments, he praised Kirk’s commitment to debate and civil discourse, and offered his sympathies to his family. He bluntly observed that “Our nation is broken” and urged all Americans to bring down the temperature in the country.
“If anyone in the sound of my voice celebrated even a little bit at the news of this shooting, I would beg you to look in the mirror and to see if you can find a better angel in there somewhere. I don’t care what his politics are. I care that he was an American,” Cox concluded on Wednesday night.
Cox struck a very different tone from President Donald Trump and his army of MAGA influencers online. Trump blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s murder, bringing politics into the fray just hours after the horrible event. Meanwhile, MAGA influencers ratcheted up their rhetoric, calling Kirk’s murder an act of “war.” Elon Musk posted, for example, “If they won’t leave us in peace, then our choice is fight or die.” Another MAGA influencer with over 200,000 followers on X wrote, “I don’t want the National Guard sent to Democrat cities anymore. I want the Air Force sent.”
A Republican congressman went so far as to give a floor speech comparing the American left to some of history’s most bloodthirsty dictators, from Pol Pot to Stalin.
Cox spoke again on Friday, announcing that Kirk’s alleged killer had been apprehended.
After thanking law enforcement and explaining some of the details behind the arrest, Cox turned back to civility. “Social media is a cancer on society right now and I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community,” he said. Cox urged Americans to “put their phones down” and, on Thursday, also warned against the rampant “disinformation” online actively put out by people trying to drive Americans apart.
“Do we escalate or do we find an off-ramp?” Cox added. “And again, it’s a choice. It’s a choice, and every one of us gets to make that choice.”
The popular two-term governor joined with Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) in 2023 to launch their “Disagree Better” campaign, which was Cox’s signature issue as head of the National Governors Association.
Polis, who served as the NGA’s vice chairman at the time, cut an ad for Cox and urged Americans to move away from hate and violent disagreement.
“I would ask Americans to love one another. To reach out to your neighbors, your friends, others who might not agree with you on every issue and realize that they love America too. We all love this great country and we want the best for it. And that’s something that fundamentally unites us. Together, we can disagree better,” Polis said at the time.
Unfortunately, Cox’s warning about the toxicity in American politics went largely unnoticed as populist politics and demagoguery continue to suck up most of the oxygen in our country. Cox has pulled out all the stops to try and bring attention to the topic, even slamming his own party’s obsession with Taylor Swift in early 2024 when she started dating Travis Kelce and showing up at NFL games.
“I can’t believe we are making this political,” Cox responded to the tweet, adding:
Most Americans are exhausted at the politics of division infiltrating everything (they hate it when the left does it and I’m confident they will hate the right doing it). This election is going to suck enough without us making up more stupid stuff to fight about. Just let Travis and Taylor do their thing. Cheer for your team. Cheer for football. Listen to your music. Let’s just take a deep breath and chill.
Cox, who is a socially conservative member of the Church of Latter Day Saints, partnering with Polis, the first openly gay man elected governor in the US, to work together to bridge partisan gaps, should have been a major storyline of the 2024 election season, but instead it was barely a blip on the radar. Cox, being the governor leading Utah through this moment of tragedy and national division, is an asset for the entire country as it’s easy to imagine many other leaders in the role trying to score political points and further enflaming the situation.
Cox has now shown to have been prescient and is a rare, credible leader on what may very well be the key issue of our time – blunting the rising tide of political violence and stopping the great unravelling taking place in the United States.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
