Its Time to Say the Quiet Part Out Loud

I put a campaign sign in my yard the other day. 

I’ve never put up a campaign sign in my life. Just quietly supported the candidates I felt good about. 

I’ve decided this year to say the quiet part out loud. 

I’m a resident of southern Utah, a wife and mom. I was raised to love and believe in the good in this country. Taught to value my fellow men, our inalienable, God given rights, and that our freedom of choice and conscious should be respected and that the role of government is to protect these rights.  

In recent years, but especially since 2020, it is crystal clear that the government (both state and federal) is not only NOT protecting our rights but overreaching to the point that our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are turning into a speck in the review mirror. 

State sovereignty is important. Having a governor who upholds the values of the people of the state he is elected to represent is also important. 

This is why I will be voting for Phil Lyman for Governor. 

I didn’t want Spencer Cox to be our governor 4 years ago and I definitely don’t believe he deserves another 4 years. 

A few reasons I believe Spencer Cox is the wrong man for Utah:

I disagree with his handling of the pandemic. 

He supported the shut down of schools and businesses. 

He force masked kids in school so the state could collect almost a billion dollars in federal money. 

Not only did he support this but also dismissed people’s right to choose with his “I don’t care why, just wear a damn mask” tweet. 

He vetoed the bill that would bar boys from playing in girls sports. Gender is essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose. This is a value of Utah and boys in girls sports goes against common sense and biology. 

His new campaign with the democratic governor of Colorado to “Disagree Better” sounds great on principle but he does not practice what he preaches. 

In an exchange with an independent journalist who was asking a fair question he didn’t like, he had a tense put his fists on the reporters chest and chastised him for “making shit up about me”, calling it a conspiracy theory.  We found out later that it wasn’t conspiracy at all and that he’s a huge fan and proponent of the very smart cities the question was about. 

Finally, previous to the recent Republican convention, he spoke at UVU and described people who take the time to show up at Tuesday night caucus meetings as extremists. 

At the convention, the delegates supported his opponent overwhelmingly. He went on stage, talked down to the people who chose to spend their whole day participating in our electoral process, and followed up by sending an email to people on his email list calling the people who voted for Lyman “right-wing extremists.”

It seems he only wants to “Disagree Better” with people who don’t disagree with him. 

He will be on the ballot not because he earned the votes at the convention but because he paid to have signatures collected. No one has vetted the signatures to make sure they are all valid. We just get to take his word for it. 

I could go on about the things I’m unhappy with that Governor Cox has done to our state. Feel free to call me and ask if you need more reasons than these. 

With the presidential election hanging in the balance, knowing that either choice could have disastrous results on our republic, we need a governor who believes in protecting our children, protecting state sovereignty and our God given rights written in the constitution. 

Phil Lyman has a proven record of doing the right thing even when it is hard. He is the man who will stand up for Utah. He will stand up for our children and he will stand up for the values of this country that people in Utah hold dear. 

This primary is too important. Please don’t sit it out. Please vote.