Far-right GOP lawmaker vows 'long-shot' challenge to primary loss: 'I’m not a conspiracy theorist'

When Utah held its 2024 GOP gubernatorial primary election on Tuesday, June 25, conservative Gov. Spencer Cox survived a challenge from Utah State Rep. Phil Lyman.

But Lyman has yet to accept defeat and acknowledge Cox as the nominee.

The Salt Lake Tribune's Bryan Schott reports that the Republican state lawmaker "seems to be hanging his fading chances of wresting the party nomination away from" the Utah governor "on a long shot allegation that the signatures Cox used to qualify for the ballot may not be legitimate."

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"Lyman, a state lawmaker, currently trails Cox by approximately 38,000 votes a week after Election Day," Schott explains. "Lyman won the delegate vote at April's Republican Party nominating convention. Lyman has continued to reject the reality of his loss, blaming the media and insinuating that the vote-tabulating machines were somehow rigged against him."

Lyman, who is on the board of directors of the far-right group Utah Citizens for the Constitution, discussed his refusal to accept the election results during an online Zoom gathering on Monday night, July 1.

Lyman told members, "I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I'm really not…. There's no shortage of genuine conspiracy theorists out there, and some of them that I think are actually agents in this space that are trying to make people look crazy, who question elections."

The Utah state lawmaker added, "I think the FBI and CIA are very active in that space. You're always trying to figure out who you can trust and who you can rely on."

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Read the Salt Lake Tribune's full article at this link.