Utah Governor Spencer Cox (Republican) reversed course on Friday, endorsing former President Donald Trump in the wake of last weekend’s assassination attempt on Trump.
“Mr. President, I know we have our differences and you probably don’t like me very much, and that’s OK,” Cox wrote to Trump. He shared “I am not writing this letter seeking a position in your cabinet or a role on your team,” he wrote on social media platform X.
“I’ve told you, you’re going to win Utah and you’re going to win the presidency again. You don’t need my help or my support to do it. But you have a chance to do something that people have said you can’t do,” the governor continued. “You have a chance to build a coalition of support that our country hasn’t seen since Ronald Reagan.”
He added: “You alone can be that kind of leader for us today.”
Cox was one of the last Republican governors to voice his support for the former president after he formally accepted the Republican nomination on Thursday, the final day of the Republican National Convention.
The Utah governor has been a vocal critic of Trump in the past. Blame She blamed him for the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Cox called on the former president to resign after the riot. To tell It would be “good for the country.”
In February, he said it would be a mistake for the party to nominate Trump as its presidential candidate again.
On July 11, two days before Trump was grazed in the ear by a bullet while campaigning in Pennsylvania, Cox told CNN’s Caitlin Collins: I wasn’t planning on voting. The governor has not declared he will run for either major party’s nomination in the 2024 election. Instead, he said he will field someone, as he did in 2020 and 2016.
But Cox said he was “grateful” for Trump’s calls for unity and “de-escalation” after the assassination attempt.
“I’m up for the challenge,” he said. Press conference Friday. “That’s all I want and all I can hope for. So I said in my letter that if you do this, I will do everything I can to help and support you.”
Cox, according to the Utah Desert News sent He sent a letter to Trump on Sunday saying he would only endorse him if he was satisfied with his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, which he called a triumphant message “that the country desperately needs right now.”
“People have been trying to ask him to do so for years, but he has never said anything like he said last week,” Cox wrote on Friday. “My commitment to him is that I will help him reduce tensions in this country.”
“What I’ve heard from people around him is that he’s very committed to this, but it’s something that hasn’t been a priority for him historically,” he added. “I think that’s probably an understatement, so I’ll be working closely with him to help make that happen.”
Cox also predicted Trump was on track to win, saying it was “not close at all,” and pointed to data showing Trump leading in national and battleground state polls.
But his prediction was joined by calls for Trump to treat Biden with “respect” as a growing number of Democrats call for him to step down amid growing concerns about Biden’s age and mental health.
“By treating President Biden with basic human dignity and respect, and emphasizing unity instead of hatred, you will win this election by a historic margin and become one of our nation’s most transformative leaders,” the governor wrote.
