Republican Utah governor not voting for Trump: ‘I’ll write somebody in’

Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) said he’s not going to vote for former President Donald Trump this year.

Cox said he did not vote for Trump in the 2016 election cycle nor the 2020 election cycle and has no intention of doing so this year. When speaking on CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Cox said he plans to write somebody in on Election Day .

“I’m not going to vote for either presidential candidate this year. I’ll write somebody in, as I’ve done in the past,” Cox said Wednesday when asked if he was supporting the top of the Republican ticket.

“I do want Donald Trump to succeed. I want my party to win. We desperately need the right people in the right positions. I'm very anxious about who he picks as vice president,” Cox continued, noting Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), one of Trump’s possible vice presidential picks, is an “incredible leader."

Cox has seemingly taken an anti-Trump stance since his first presidential run in 2016. He said he has not voted for the Republican nominee since voting for fellow Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT).

“I’ve said before I haven’t voted for the top of the ticket since 2012. I’ve certainly had my concerns. One of those is what happened on Jan. 6. I’m hopeful. I want my party to win [but] they chose a candidate this time around that was not my first choice, which wasn’t my choice last time either, but the party’s spoken,” Cox said.

During the interview, Cox touched on recent news that fake electors involved with efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election will be sent to the Republican National Convention next week.

“Obviously, it’s not the best look, Kaitlan, but I’m very hopeful that at the national convention, the Republicans will have an opportunity to turn the page on that stuff and present a hopeful message to the country. I think that the country is desperate for some normalcy right now, and neither party has been giving them that normalcy,” Cox said.

Cox also touched on his “worries” surrounding election denialism. This year, Cox faced an unsuccessful primary challenger, who has yet to concede and is considering legal options.

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He explained a situation when he was lieutenant governor and secretary of state in 2016 in which Hillary Clinton supporters tried to overturn the vote of the electors who were bound to Trump, noting “of course it got worse in 2020 with my party.”

“I do worry that this is happening with the fringes of the party and now more of the mainstream of the party. I’m just a big believer that we should actually be trying to win elections the right way and try to convince people that we have the message that matters,” Cox said.