Utah's Gov. Spencer Cox makes a familiar plea for unity following Charlie Kirk's death

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Utah Gov. Spencer Cox had consistently called for civility in a polarized country where it feels increasingly rare. And then the political violence came to his own backyard.

Hours after conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was gunned down at Utah Valley University, with partisan reflexes kicking into gear, the Republican stood before cameras and offered a prayer for a different path as the U.S. approaches its 250th birthday.

“We just need every single person in this country to think about where we are and where we want to be,” Cox said, his voice a mix of emotion and exasperation. “To ask ourselves, ‘Is this it? Is this what 250 years has wrought on us?’”

“I pray that that’s not the case.”

Cox’s resolute plea touched a nerve with Americans weary of rising political violence and fearful of what may come. It was a familiar role for Cox, who drew national attention with a deeply personal response to the 2016 shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub and has ever since espoused a vision of politics rooted in unity and respect.

A vision that, as he put it Wednesday, “all of us will try to find a way to stop hating our fellow Americans.”

He was far from the only political leader to call for unity, but his comments stood out in a sea of harsh reactions that flooded social media — glee from some on the left, demands for vengeance from others on the right.

President Donald Trump blamed his political enemies, saying rhetoric from “the radical left” drove Kirk’s killer, though the assailant and motive were not known, and portrayed political violence as solely affecting the right.

Cox’s call for introspection over rage evoked a powerful speech he delivered nearly a decade ago, when he was Utah’s lieutenant governor, in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando that left 49 people dead at a gay bar.

Speaking to an audience largely from the LGBTQ community, Cox confessed that as a student in a small, rural high school, sometimes he was unkind to “kids in my class that were different,” who he now knows are gay.

“I will forever regret not treating them with the kindness, dignity and respect — the love — that they deserved,” he said. He said his heart has changed because he’s gotten to know members of the gay community, who treated him with kindness, dignity, respect and love that he didn’t deserve, “and it has made me love you.”

Later, as governor, he went against the grain among Republicans and vetoed a 2022 bill that would have banned transgender athletes from playing on girls’ teams. He said the law would affect just four of the 85,000 student athletes in Utah at the time and noted suicide statistics for transgender youth.

“Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few,” he wrote in a letter explaining his veto. “I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live.”

In his 2020 campaign for governor, Cox and his Democratic opponent appeared together in television ads pledging to “disagree without hating each other,” a highly unorthodox move.

And as chairman of the National Governors Association, he promoted civility through an initiative he called Disagree Better. He made appearances across the country with Democratic governors and other public figures to emphasize unifying values.

Cox’s office did not respond to an interview request.

Cox has had a complicated relationship with Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement. He’s one of the few Republicans remaining in high office to have been fiercely critical of the president.

Cox did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020, and said last summer that he wouldn’t vote for him in 2024 either. He said Trump’s role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol went too far.

But days later, after an assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, Cox changed his mind. He sent a letter to Trump explaining that his defiant response at the moment of the shooting had spurred a sudden reassessment and switch for Cox.

A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cox said he believed God had a hand in sparing Trump’s life, and said he believed Trump was uniquely positioned to save the country “by emphasizing unity rather than hate.”

In his six-minute speech on Wednesday, Cox spoke unflinchingly about the “political assassination” of Kirk, which he put in the context of other recent political violence targeting Trump, Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor and Democratic legislators in Minnesota.

“Our nation is broken,” he said.

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