Threats of political violence continue to mar the final days of Utah’s 2024 elections, following a year in which threats against elected officials increased.
Several candidates have spoken about the need to tone down the vitriol to reduce the risk of violence, including U.S. Senate candidates John Curtis and Caroline Gleich. Curtis told supporters at a town hall this week that politicians must emphasize truth and trust in systems, while Gleich said her campaign has been the subject of “a lot of sexist and hateful language” – language that must be condemned by leaders .
Just last month, Utah Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson’s staff was targeted by a suspicious letter filled with white powder. The letter, which was intercepted by the FBI in Reno, Nevada, was signed by the United States Traitor Elimination Army.
“This incident is the latest tactic in a nationwide trend of threats and intimidation against election officials. But we will not be intimidated,” Henderson said at the time.
With just days left until Election Day, Henderson — the state’s top election official — is now facing violent threats online from people responding to a question from a registered candidate for governor.
Online threats
Several people who appear to be supporting Phil Lyman’s gubernatorial campaign this week suggested that top election officials be put to death, raising the political temperature just days before the culmination of an already contentious election cycle in Utah.
Lyman, a state lawmaker who has refused to concede after losing to Gov. Spencer Cox in the Republican primary, has spent months questioning the outcome of that election and accusing Cox and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, of fraud. He filed several lawsuits to overturn the primaries, but those efforts were rejected by the courts.
On Sunday, Lyman posted on
Comments poured in, with many calling for Cox and Henderson to be jailed, while several others suggested the death penalty. “Public hanging,” said one, while others said they should be killed by a firing squad. Two commenters shared photos of nooses.
State Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, shared several screenshots of the comments on Lyman’s post, saying, “Phil Lyman refuses to condemn these types of comments on his social media post. In what world is this okay?” McKell is Cox’s brother-in-law.
Lyman responded in another post on Monday, sharing screenshots of texts McKell sent him about the violent comments and continuing to argue that Cox is not a legitimate candidate. When KSL.com asked Wednesday whether he would condemn the comments, Lyman suggested they were not made by his supporters and did not answer any questions, neither condoning nor condemning what was said.
“Who said that?” he asked in response before adding, “Will you send me your story on the thousands of nomination requests turned over to the AG?” – a reference to signature packages that were referred to the Utah attorney general after a legislative audit revealed some signature verification errors.
That audit found that the Cox campaign met the requirements to appear on the primary election ballot.
A few minutes later, Lyman said, “I’m still waiting for you to tell me who my ‘supporters’ are who said what you’re claiming.”
Asked whether he believes Cox, Henderson or other officials knowingly committed election fraud, Lyman again did not answer.
“Do you think they did that?” he replied. “And what do you think the consequences should be? And the fact that someone responds to an X-post makes them my supporters?”
KSL.com analyzed the comments on Lyman’s post and found that at least eleven of the commenters suggesting the death penalty had shared pro-Lyman content in the past month, and three of them had posted photos of their ballots with Lyman’s name written in it. governor.
Spokespeople for the Cox/Henderson campaign and the lieutenant governor’s office declined to comment.
“We are aware of these threats,” a spokesperson for the Utah Department of Public Safety said in a statement. “We remain very vigilant during the elections and take all threats seriously. We will continue to monitor the situation and take action accordingly.”
Lower the temperature
As emotions have risen on both sides of the political spectrum in the days leading up to Election Day, several other candidates in Utah have spoken about the need to prevent political violence. During a town hall in Farmington on Monday evening, Curtis and Rep. Celeste Maloy were asked by a resident what can be done to prevent violence leading up to and after the Nov. 5 election.
Curtis pointed to an op-ed he published in the Deseret News earlier that day in which he pledged to accept the results of the upcoming election. In it, he recalled being in the Capitol complex during the U.S. Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, and called for confidence in the system.
“The consequences of demonizing our opponents and weaponizing words is that it both undermines trust and leads to physical violence,” Curtis wrote.
He told Farmington residents that too many people don’t believe in facts and encouraged them to “talk directly to people.”
“There’s just not enough people saying the facts matter,” he said. “I think it’s so easy to go down a rabbit hole, and people do, and I think society tends to give in to that. … So just sayin’, these are facts, folks, and facts matter.”
Maloy said too many people in both parties are too quick to blame the other side for escalating rhetoric while ignoring their own role in it. She told KSL.com that people need “thicker skin” to have a better dialogue with those who hold drastically opposing views.
“We’re all Americans,” she said. “We’re all in this together. I say all the time…you can’t sink half a ship….Just recognize that our neighbors have the right to be wrong.”
Maloy and Curtis’ political opponents also emphasized the need to reduce the risk of political violence. Gleich, the Democrat running against Curtis for the U.S. Senate, said she has been on the receiving end of “a lot of sexist and hateful language” and said candidates must denounce that kind of rhetoric. She blamed former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, citing a rally in New York City on Sunday at which several of his supporters made a series of vulgar and racist comments.
“These comments are unacceptable and have no place in our current society,” she said. “We need to denounce it and take a stand and say this is wrong, it’s not who we are.”
Nathaniel Woodward, another Democrat who hopes to unseat Maloy in Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, said too many politicians attack the character of their opponents instead of advocating for better policies.
“It’s more about stirring up some pretty strong feelings and making each problem go away or go away,” he said. “It’s a little weird when you look at it, but you know, it’s not that weird because these things matter. These things have consequences.”
