Speaking in Charlie Kirk’s place, Utah Gov. Cox booed at USU ahead of urging ‘peacemaking’

Logan • Only weeks after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a university campus in Utah, the organization he co-founded continued his planned “American Comeback Tour” two hours north at Utah State University.

And as Gov. Spencer Cox joined a panel of Republican, Latter-day Saint politicians taking Kirk’s place at the Logan campus Tuesday night, the audience booed.

[Read more: ‘I am Charlie Kirk’: See the signs, shirts and hats at the Turning Point tour’s return to Utah]

The national spotlight shone on Utah’s GOP governor in the days after Kirk’s death, and he drew bipartisan praise for his condemnation of toxic political division and violence. Two days earlier, Cox headlined CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

But the audience, dotted with red “Make America Great Again” hats, drowned him out as he tried to recount his experience on the day Kirk was killed at Utah Valley University in Orem.

When he was able to speak, Cox said he was “proud” of the work Turning Point USA had done.

The panel also included Arizona U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs and Utah’s former Rep. Jason Chaffetz, now a commentator on Fox News. Tyler Bowyer, who leads the campaign arm of Kirk’s organization, Turning Point Action, hosted the panel.

When Bowyer asked a question attacking what he called Cox’s “soft Utah approach,” which Bowyer claimed “has enabled some people that are mentally ill,” Cox responded: “Peacemaking is not soft.”

“It’s the hardest thing,” Cox continued. “That’s what Charlie understood. And this matters because there is a rift in our party.”

‘It’s now up to us’

Tuesday was not the first time Cox has been booed by fellow party members. When he has attended, the governor has repeatedly been shouted down at the Utah Republican Party’s annual convention.

Sen. Mike Lee, a close ally of Kirk’s, was also scheduled to be on the panel. However, Lee said in a pre-recorded video shown early in the event that he instead needed to remain in Washington to participate in Senate votes ahead of a possible government shutdown.

“It’s now up to us ... to carry [Kirk’s] message forward and to take his charge, to make America as strong and as durable as it can possibly be,” Lee said.

The Utah senator appeared on Kirk’s podcast one week before his slaying just miles from Lee’s home.

“I want to thank you for the work that you’re doing on campuses across the country,” Lee told Kirk, “and for your interest in visiting Utah next week. You’re giving students everywhere the chance to hear perspectives that they often wouldn’t otherwise get.”

‘That is not coming from the right’

An hour ahead of the Republican politicians taking the stage, thousands of students and supporters filtered into the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum arena at Utah State University.

A line of hundreds of attendees had earlier in the afternoon curled around the sidewalks outside the basketball arena. Although the building has a capacity of just over 10,000, Turning Point USA capped the event’s attendance at 5,500 people.

When a sponsor stepped out to introduce the event just before 7 p.m., hundreds of seats remained empty.

“Charlie, Charlie, Charlie,” attendees chanted as seconds ticked down on a clock projected on the stage ahead of the start.

Many of the attendees wore Make America Great Again apparel and white T-shirts with the word “FREEDOM” — identical to the one Kirk was wearing at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.

Others donned tees critical of Cox and toted placards with images of posts Kirk made attacking the governor, who is often perceived as more moderate than the other prominent figures in his party.

“He is the very first governor in the state of Utah to ever declare June Pride Month,” said Sophie Anderson, a demonstrator active in Utah conservative circles who was holding one of the posters.

Next to her was Teena Horlacher, who has held various local Republican Party positions, asking attendees, “Do you know about Gov. Cox?”

“Charlie Kirk knew about Spencer Cox. He called for his expulsion from the Republican Party. And currently,” Horlacher said, “Spencer Cox is grandstanding on the assassination of Charlie Kirk.”

In 2022, after Cox vetoed a ban on transgender girls from school sports, Kirk posted, “Utah Governor Spencer Cox should be expelled from the Republican party.”

Cox has since signed and supported multiple laws imposing restrictions on the state’s transgender community, and has retreated from his declarations acknowledging the LGBTQ+ community.

When a student asked the governor Tuesday about Kirk’s social media remarks, Cox said he hoped that the late activist’s opinion on the governor would have been different “if I had an opportunity to talk to him today.”

He touted adding his signature to a law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, and barring transgender people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity in government-owned buildings.

“I think Charlie and I would agree on 99% of things,” Cox added.

Chaffetz, a speculated candidate to replace Cox when he plans to leave office in 2028, made clear that he shares the perspective that laws should be in place to limit transgender people’s ability to access spaces that match their gender.

“I worry that we’re putting too much [focus on] tolerance,” Chaffetz said, to cheers. “You do not need a man with junk in a woman’s bathroom.”

The governor, who has spent much of his time in office decrying political polarization, pointed at one side of the political spectrum as the driver of political violence.

When any words — including those that are prejudicial — are perceived as violent, then violence is justified as speech, Cox told the audience.

“That mindset is only coming from one side,” Cox said. “That idea that speech is violence and violence is speech — that is not coming from the right."

Tight security

Cheers erupted in the line outside the USU arena when a man strode by carrying Utah’s historical state flag — a blue banner embellished with the state seal. Since Utah’s flag was replaced in 2023, the historical one has become a pennant for Utahns who fall to the right of many of the state’s elected GOP officials.

Some groups of students at the second-oldest higher education institution in the state urged USU not to allow the event when it was announced in August. His messages, a petition that amassed over 6,000 signatures, said, “propagate divisive and contentious ideologies.”

Kirk was frequently denounced for his opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, including gay marriage, objection to gun control and criticism of efforts toward equity for diverse populations.

He also faced backlash for denigrating prominent Black women’s intelligence and echoed white supremacist ideas like “the great replacement theory” — the belief that immigrants will take the place of white Americans.

In the wake of the shooting in Orem, the security presence Tuesday was much larger than at Kirk’s UVU event earlier in the month. USU had sent one of its police officers to observe that tour stop so it could prepare for its own.

Unlike Kirk’s UVU appearance, the panel took place indoors. Security guards checked bags and tickets while police officers from neighboring agencies and other public universities in the state were on-site in an effort to prevent another act of violence.

Just hours before doors opened Tuesday, the university evacuated the Old Main administrative building across campus because of a suspicious package. A small explosion was heard on campus and police later said they destroyed the package, which they said was not a bomb.

Salt Lake Tribune journalist Trevor Christensen contributed to this story.