Utah gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman will likely have to find a new running mate — and fast — after a judge ruled Friday that his pick for lieutenant governor, Layne Bangerter, is not eligible to be included on the Republican primary ballot.
“We cherish the right to run for office and participate in our government,” 3rd District Court Judge Matthew Bates said on Friday after considering the arguments made by Lyman’s ticket and the state for just over an hour. “That right, however, is subject to a few qualifications that the Supreme Court has described as ‘fundamental’ in our Constitution. Those are not policies in the Constitution, but they are mandates.”
Bates said he will file a written decision on Monday. The court only ruled on Lyman’s request for a temporary restraining order on the state denying Bangerter’s access to the ballot and did not make a final ruling resolving the case.
After Bates informed the court of his decision, an attorney representing the state said, “The lieutenant governor’s office is interested in making sure that Mr. Lyman is able to choose a running mate, and so we’ll work with him in the hall outside or after these proceedings to do our best.”
The candidate told reporters after the hearing that officials gave him until noon Monday to pick a new lieutenant governor candidate. When asked whether he would appear on the ballot alone, Lyman answered, “No, that would be a huge disservice to everybody in the state,” adding, “We have people that we’re looking at.”
Lyman and Bangerter were picked as the Utah Republican Party’s convention nominees for governor and lieutenant governor on Saturday, where delegates also ratified Bangerter as the lieutenant governor candidate.
At the time, Lyman said, “I won’t be surprised if it’s challenged. I hope it’s not, but if it is, I think we’ll win it. I’ve talked to a number of attorneys over the last few days. That was a huge concern right up front.”
On Friday, Daniel Widdison from the Utah attorney general’s office argued during the hearing, “It’s difficult for a person to come into court and say, ‘I need emergency temporary relief,’ when ... they’ve known about the potential discrepancy in the interpretation of the statute or the Constitution for months and have not resolved it.”
Bangerter previously served as former President Donald Trump’s campaign director in Idaho and worked at both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture under the ex-president’s administration. He is the nephew of former governor Norm Bangerter.
The Utah Constitution says candidates for governor and lieutenant governor must have been “a resident citizen of the state for five years next preceding the election.” Bangerter told The Tribune that he moved to Utah from Idaho in 2021, although he donated to Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador using an Idaho address in February 2022.
Former Lt. Gov. Greg Bell — who is stepping in as an independent adviser in the gubernatorial race while top elections official Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson is up for a second term — announced Monday that he had determined Bangerter was not qualified to run.
Soon after, Lyman and Bangerter filed a lawsuit against Henderson and her elections director, Ryan Cowley, challenging that decision.
“[Bangerter’s] different reading of the Constitution cannot supersede the actual language of the Constitution, the meaning of the Constitution and the obligation of officers to conduct their duties,” Widdison said.
Much of the argument employed by Lyman, Bangerter and their attorneys centered around Henderson’s decision last summer to allow U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy to remain on the ballot, despite not being a registered Republican voter when she filed for candidacy.
Eligibility for that position, however, is governed by the U.S. Constitution — not the state’s. And an attorney for the state said that the focus of that case was whether Maloy qualified under Utah Republican Party bylaws, not statute.
Despite legislative leaders questioning the lieutenant governor’s decision, a Utah district court judge rejected a bid from one of Maloy’s opponents — who was represented by Chad Shattuck, the same attorney retained by Lyman — to remove her name from the ballot.
“Are you aware of any circumstances in the past where the lieutenant governor’s office has accepted a declaration of candidacy for someone ... who had that five years but it was not five years immediately before the election?” Bates asked.
Shattuck replied, “Well, your honor, I don’t work there, so I don’t have that information available to me.”
“I’m just throwing Hail Marys here,” Bates said.
State Rep. Brian King, who is running as Democrats’ nominee in November’s gubernatorial race, said Lyman “having his running mate removed from the ballot because of a failure to follow the basic standards of the Utah Constitution” was just the most recent example of extremist Republicans embarrassing the state.
During his campaign, Lyman has leaned into his arrest on charges surrounding an illegal ATV protest and subsequent pardon by Trump. And like Trump’s false claims of election interference in 2020, Lyman has used the legal challenge of Bangerter’s candidacy to sow doubt in Utah’s elections officials — and his counsel has, too.
“Because of the strength Layne has brought to our team, it is now clear why Spencer Cox, Deidre Henderson, and Greg Bell are doing everything they can to keep him off the ballot,” Lyman’s campaign wrote Thursday in a statement post to X.
The thread continued, “The ongoing situation regarding the eligibility of Layne Bangerter as Phil’s lieutenant governor is just the latest example of the type of politically motivated election interference that needs to end if Utah wants to move forward as a thriving, prosperous state.”
Shattuck closed his argument Friday without addressing the Utah Constitution, saying that the only basis for the state keeping Bangerter off the ballot was “because they say so.” Despite the decision coming from Bell, not Henderson, he added, “I can’t imagine any other officer in this land who might want to eliminate their competitor from running against them.”
Attorneys for both parties asked for urgency earlier this week, with the state saying ballots need to be sent to the printer Friday or Monday, at the latest, so the state can have them mailed out to overseas voters by May 10, as required by federal law.
Political correspondent Bryan Schott and reporter Robert Gehrke contributed to this story.
Update • This story was updated to include Phil Lyman’s comments after the hearing.
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