Cox campaign denies paying to recruit additional ‘Lyman’ write-in candidates

The campaign of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox rejected allegations it had paid to recruit gubernatorial candidates who share a last name with write-in candidate state Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding. The two write-in candidates also rejected the validity of Lyman’s claims.
Lyman is running a write-in campaign for governor after losing to Cox in the Republican primary election by more than 37,500 votes in June. Lyman has said his victory in the state GOP convention in April should guarantee him a place on the general election ballot and has questioned the legitimacy of the signatures Cox gathered to qualify for the primary ballot.
Lyman launched a write-in campaign for governor shortly after the Utah Supreme Court denied his request to remove Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson from office and make him the official GOP nominee on the November ballot. On Sept. 3, two additional Lymans, Richard and Carol, each filed a declaration of candidacy with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office to run for governor as write-in candidates.
On Monday, Phil Lyman posted two photos showing texts that allegedly suggest Richard and Carol Lyman had been encouraged to run for office “to take votes away for the other Lyman.” The texts, which the Deseret News has not been able to independently verify, come from an alleged co-worker of Richard Lyman, and claim that Richard Lyman had been paid $1,000 and offered a “steak dinner” by the “Cox campaign” to register as a write-in candidate.
But Carol Lyman, in a text to the Deseret News, denied claims that they had been paid to launch their write-in campaign.
“Every one who has been reaching out has been asking about claims that we are being paid for this. We want everyone to know that Governor Cox’s campaign is not paying us. I (Carol) actually paid the fees for both of us. Period. We’re running to make a statement,” she said. “People keep asking if we’re related to Phil Lyman and last Sunday someone asked and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’ve always been proud of my name and the negativity of his campaign is causing me real embarrassment. Richard and I talked about it and decided to run so that we had a candidate we could feel good about voting for because we don’t feel good about voting for Cox or Phil Lyman.”
Cox campaign spokesperson Matt Lusty denied that anyone from the campaign had officially paid to recruit additional “Lyman” candidates.
“Phil Lyman has a habit of making accusations that are blatantly false. This is no exception,” Lusty said. “Phil should go back to filming ads to help his cousin and liberal Democrat Brian King.”
State Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, is the Democratic nominee for governor. Lyman and King are distant cousins. Following Lyman’s announcement that he would continue to pursue a gubernatorial bid as a write-in candidate, Lyman and King filmed an ad mocking “Disagree Better,” Cox’s initiative to lower the temperature of political dialogue. The ad asked voters for their support and was paid for by “Brian for Utah.”
Lyman, and his running mate, attorney Natalie Clawson, said the additional write-in candidates sharing Lyman’s last name has hurt their campaign because their get-out-the-vote efforts previously advertised “write in Lyman for governor,” without mentioning Lyman’s first name.
Clawson said the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, which oversees elections in the state, had previously instructed their campaign that “writing ‘Lyman’ on the ballot would be sufficient.” “We relied on this instruction in our marketing,” Clawson said in a post on X.
The Utah debate commission announced on Monday which candidates will participate in its gubernatorial debate on Wednesday. To qualify for the debate stage, candidates needed to poll within the margin of error of a 10% threshold established by the commission.
Cox, polling at 48%; King, at 27%; and Libertarian candidate Robert Latham, at 6.8%; each qualified for Wednesday’s debate. Lyman received the support of 22 respondents — 4.25% of the 518 Utah voters — coming short of the 5.69% minimum required to fall within the margin of error of 4.31% of the 10% threshold.
Lyman’s name was not listed as a candidate among the possible poll responses because his name will not appear on the general election ballot. But 22 poll respondents specified his name under “other.” An additional seven respondents entered just the last name “Lyman.”
These responses were not counted toward state Rep. Phil Lyman because the polling firm contracted by the commission said it did not have enough information to attribute the responses to either Lyman write-in candidacy, according to Rachel Day, the executive director of the Utah Debate Commission.
The poll was conducted between Aug. 29-Sept. 4, barely overlapping with the write-in candidacy of Richard Lyman. If the “Lyman” responses would have been included in the poll, Phil Lyman would have come within 0.1% of the adjusted threshold, but would not have qualified for the debate.
Utah’s gubernatorial debate for the general election will be Wednesday at 6 p.m. The debate will take place at Salt Lake Community College and will be broadcasted via the state’s four major news channels in addition to PBS.
This article has been updated to clarify that the accusation the Cox campaign is rejecting is that they paid to recruit a candidate to run for governor, and to add a quote from Carol Lyman.