A financial disclosure Utah Gov. Spencer Cox filed last week appearing to indicate he had secured a book deal amplified questions about whether the Republican has White House ambitions.
In a Tuesday news conference on PBS Utah, Cox confirmed he is writing a book. But the Republican governor said he has no plans to launch a 2028 presidential campaign.
“I know that people who want to run for president write books — this is not that," Cox told reporters. “Let me make it very clear: I’m not running for president.”
Cox amended his public conflict of interest report Friday afternoon to disclose that he “has received $5,000 or more in income” from Penguin Press during the last year.
Any money the second-term governor is paid as part of a possible book deal is in addition to his $193,100 salary budgeted for the current fiscal year.
Cox’s forthcoming book is the first published by the Republican governor. The governor began writing it two years ago, he said Tuesday.
“It’s about where we are as a country, and just my concerns around the polarization that we’ve been seeing and how to do better at that,” Cox said. “That’s probably all I can share right now.”
Media representatives for Penguin Press, a division of the publishing giant Penguin Random House, did not respond to questions about the deal.
It’s unclear what the governor plans to do after 2028 — as he’s also said he will not run for reelection.
Cox appeared at the bottom of a list of potential Republican contenders for the White House compiled by The Washington Post earlier this month.
“Utah’s governor is the least likely potential candidate on this list to get traction because he approaches Republican politics differently than Trump does,” wrote The Post’s political analyst Amber Phillips, who categorized Cox as a possible “not-quite-MAGA candidate.”
Despite previously being critical of Trump, Cox endorsed him after the now-president was nominated by Republicans last year. At the time, Cox sent the GOP nominee a letter urging him to unify the increasingly politically polarized country.
In an interview with NPR that aired Tuesday, Cox said, “I don’t think that’s happened.”
“That’s not been something that he’s prioritized,” Cox said at Tuesday’s news conference in response to a question from a Salt Lake Tribune reporter. “This is something that’s important to me. I realize it’s not important to everybody, but I’m just going to keep sharing my message.”
Penguin Random House competitor HarperCollins announced a book from another high-profile Utah Republican, Sen. Mike Lee, earlier this year. Criticizing what he sees as political uniformity among top federal lawmakers, the book on what he calls the “Uniparty” is expected on shelves in 2026.