Incumbent Gov. Cox leads challenger Lyman by a wide margin in latest polls

Gov. Spencer Cox. Photo: Utah State Office of the Governor

UTAH – Two weeks until the June 25th Primary election, polls show Republican incumbent Governor Spencer Cox maintaining a strong lead over his primary challenger State Rep. Phil Lyman.

According to a poll conducted by HarrisX for Deseret News and the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics, Gov. Cox is enjoying 62% support among likely Republican primary voters, with Lyman trailing behind gathering 25% support. An additional 12% of voters said they were unsure on who they will vote for.

Incumbent Gov. Cox also enjoyed a strong lead among undecided voters, as when they were asked which candidate they were considering to vote for, 71% chose Gov. Cox compared to 29% for Lyman.

HarrisX conducted this poll using 477 likely Republican voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Lyman, who has been campaigning all over the state including a May rally in Park City, has long criticized Governor Cox’s policies and tenure as Utah’s top executive.

In an interview with the TownLift, Lyman alleged that the Cox administration has surveilled and monitored Utahns.

“I’m not a fan of (Gov. Cox’s) state government, surveilling people, monitoring people, measuring every aspect of their lives.”

“We’ve turned a local pool resource like water into a state resource that can be managed at the state level by people who have no idea what they’re even talking about in regard to some of these roles,” Lyman said, referencing the meters that have been implemented to monitor water levels.

Throughout his campaign Lyman has also criticized Gov. Cox for rates of government spending, and in Lyman’s eyes, being soft on immigration.

Many Utahns think differently of Gov. Cox, demonstrated by his strong polling numbers and approval ratings, as an April report conducted by ABC News found Gov. Cox to have the second highest approval rating of all governors in the United States, enjoying a 62% approval rating.

Gov. Cox has primarily campaigned on successes he has achieved during his time in office, highlighting tax cuts, limiting the expansion of abortion clinics in Utah, and the implementation of school choice.