Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Phil Lyman announced Tuesday he is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to disqualify Gov. Spencer Cox's bid for reelection, appealing an earlier decision from Utah's high court that shot down his attempts to install himself as the Republican nominee for governor.
Lyman has filed a series of legal motions seeking to invalidate Cox as the GOP gubernatorial nominee since losing to the incumbent governor in the June primary. In August, he asked Utah's Supreme Court to throw Cox out of office and off of the general election ballot, arguing that he is the rightful nominee because he earned more than 60% of the vote during the party's nominating convention in April. The court dismissed Lyman's filing on Aug. 14, but Lyman told KSL at the time he planned to appeal.
His announcement Tuesday morning comes just 14 days before Election Day.
"We have decided to appeal this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court because we believe the Utah Supreme Court's dismissal was frivolous and misconstrued the previous SCOTUS ruling on New York State Board of Elections v. Lopez Torres," Lyman said in a statement. "There is enough history of litigation surrounding SB54 to support an appeal to SCOTUS. We look forward to the next steps in this process."
Lyman was referring to a 2014 law that allows candidates to qualify for the primary ballot by collecting signatures or by winning the delegate vote during the convention. He has argued that he is the rightful Republican Party nominee because party bylaws state that any candidate who receives at least 60% of the delegate vote is the party's nominee.
Utah's Supreme Court disagreed, however, writing, "If a party seeks to be certified under state law as a qualified political party, 'it must comply with the statute's requirements.'"
Lyman, a Republican state lawmaker from Blanding, refused to concede to Cox even after the results of the primary were certified and is now running as a write-in candidate for governor.
A spokesman for Cox's reelection campaign issued a statement to KSL.com, saying: "The governor respects the will of all voters, including those who didn't support him in previous elections."
In addition to arguing against the dual path to the primary ballot, Lyman has also accused the Cox campaign of wrongdoing related to the signatures he collected. He reiterated claims that Cox fell short of the 28,000-signature threshold to qualify in his statement Tuesday, citing a legislative audit released last week he says shows Cox "likely did not gather enough signatures to meet the legally required threshold."
While that audit did find some errors in verifying signatures collected on behalf of the Cox campaign — as well as the campaigns for Senate candidate John Curtis and attorney general candidate Derek Brown — it said all three candidates met ballot access requirements.
