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SALT LAKE CITY — One day after Gov. Spencer Cox concluded his national "Disagree Better" initiative, the nation was shocked by a gunman taking aim at Donald Trump.
The assassination attempt against the former president sparked calls for pundits and politicians to stop labeling each other and to lower the temperature of their political rhetoric.
However, Cox's effort over the past year to push a similar message — of having real debates without degrading your opponents — has revealed the difficulty of encouraging respect amid social media-driven hyperpartisanship. In fact, Cox's "Disagree Better" campaign became one of the central targets during the governor's contentious primary race against state Rep. Phil Lyman.
Cox secured the nomination of the Utah Republican Party for the second time on June 25, following a four-year term noted for legislative action on housing, water, abortion and taxes. But his win over Lyman, who won the support of delegates at the GOP state convention in April, may have reflected the political costs of championing healthy political discourse over culture war victories.
"We learned that there are lots of incentives lined up against this," Cox told the Deseret News about "Disagree Better" during last week's National Governors Association meeting. "But I think this is the message that matters."
A shifting political climate
The message of the Lyman campaign focused heavily on criticisms of Cox for his "Disagree Better" approach to politics. Lyman has referenced the initiative at least 40 times on his X account so far this year, arguing that civility and compromise can be obstacles to taking a firm stance on issues like transgender participation in sports and detaining migrants who enter the country illegally.
By the time election results were finalized, Lyman trailed Cox by about 9% — a narrower winning margin than that of recent Utah governors. In 2016, Cox's predecessor, Gary Herbert, defeated a well-funded primary attack from his right by more than 43 percentage points.
While some out-of-state observers were surprised that Cox won at all as one of the seemingly few Republican leaders who has not endorsed Donald Trump's brand of politics, some local politicos saw the results as indicative of the opposite trend among Utah's GOP electorate.
"I attribute it mostly to the national political climate," said Utah political strategist Marty Carpenter, who directed Herbert's 2016 campaign. "But a 9-point victory is hardly a close race by most standards."
In an interview with the Deseret News, Herbert said "Disagree Better" has made Cox stand out on the national stage but it may not have helped him in the current electoral environment.
The definition of "conservative" has shifted in recent years from Ronald Reagan's "big tent" of free market and limited government principles to the policies and tone of Donald Trump, Herbert said, which makes it more acceptable to attack fellow Republicans who aren't "more pure."
"With how we treat each other it sounds like we are enemies," Herbert said.
Cox's emphasis on bringing civility back to conservatism is laudable, Herbert said. But he worries that what "Disagree Better" may have failed to do in this election is respond to what Herbert called "half truths, outright lies (and) false misrepresentations" that chipped away at the incumbent's support.
"There's just so much stuff out there that's negative about Spencer that kind of overshadowed a lot of the good things that he had done, and possibly hurt him in connecting with the electorate," Herbert said.
The most common concern Herbert heard was about a video of Cox sharing his preferred pronouns of "he, him and his" in 2021. Cox made the statement in response to a high school student who first shared her pronouns in a virtual town hall. A year later, the clip circulated on conservative media, earning criticism from hosts like Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson, who devoted an entire 11-minute monologue to the topic.
Herbert said the one-off instance of Cox sharing his pronouns was an attempt to meet a struggling teenager where she was. The video was just one example of something that was "exploited by his opponent" but that wasn't a "fair representation of where Spencer Cox is at," Herbert said. "And obviously it worked."
"That makes you wonder whether people are really looking at the issues, or just looking at something to be angry about," Herbert said.
Why are some GOP voters angry?
Nearly 46% of Utah Republicans voted for an alternative to Cox on June 25. A small sample of Lyman supporters told the Deseret News their qualms with Cox stem from specific policy issues, like border security, as well as a feeling that the "Disagree Better" approach is ill equipped to counter the excesses of the left.
"The whole Disagree Better thing, it sounds great, but ultimately, there's a hard line in the sand for some things," said Neil Sebring, a fleet manager at Godfrey Trucking who worked on Lyman's campaign. Sebring said he thought that one example of Cox crossing a line no conservative should was by supporting policies that allow "men in women's bathrooms."
However, one of the first bills Cox signed into law in 2024 prohibited individuals from using restrooms or locker rooms in public buildings that don't align with their sex designation at birth. The bill makes an exception for transgender people if they have undergone transgender-related surgery and changed their birth certificate to match their gender identity. The bill also mandates more unisex bathrooms in future public buildings.
