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Our nation is broken.
Those were among the first words Utah Gov. Spencer Cox uttered as he faced the cameras soon after the young conservative activist Charlie Kirk was gunned down in his state while engaging in a conversation with college students.
The Republican governor has long championed civility in public discourse and has been an outspoken critic of political polarization. He toured the nation to foster healthier disagreements and once appeared in a campaign ad alongside his Democratic opponent.
But this week, Cox, dressed in a dark Utah Department of Public Safety polo shirt, found himself describing the unthinkable, what he called the "political assassination" of Kirk.
“We mourn as a nation. If anyone in the sound of my voice celebrated even a little bit at the news of this shooting, I would beg you to look in the mirror and to see if you can find a better angel in there somewhere,” he said. “I don't care what his politics are. I care that he was an American.”
Cox listed other recent incidents of political violence aimed at individuals across the political spectrum. He pointed to killings in Minnesota, where a state Democratic lawmaker and her husband were killed, the arson attempt against Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro − and the attempts on the life of Republican President Donald Trump.
"We desperately need leaders in our country, but more than the leaders, we just need every single person in this country to think about where we are and where we want to be," Cox said. "To ask ourselves, is this it? Is this what 250 years has brought on us?
"I pray that that's not the case."
Cox strikes a 'good balance'
A sixth-generation Utahn, Cox, 50, was born and raised in Fairview, which sits in the center of the state. An attorney by training, Cox has a held a varitey of public offices including as a city councilmember, mayor, county commissioner and state legislator before being appointed as Utah’s lieutenant governor in 2013.
People who have followed Cox’s political career are not surprised that his comments moved beyond the partisan rhetoric racing across social media and elsewhere in the wake of Kirk's death.
At the same time, Cox was not afraid of leaning into his conservative roots by saying that the perpetrator would be held accountable to the “furthest extent of the law” and reminding people that Utah still has the death penalty.
Cox’s comments struck a good balance, said Bruce Hough, a former longtime Republican National Committee member and a former chair of the Utah Republican Party.
He made it clear that the full force of the justice system would be used against the person responsible for the killing while making the case for civility.
“He was very effective in his ability to communicate not only the horror of such an incident, but also the importance of people coming together in a way that is not full of anger and with violent tendencies,” he said. “That we need to bring our society together in a way where we can disagree without being violent, without being angry and respecting each other's views.”
Cox wants Americans to 'Disagree Better'
From 2023 to 2024, Cox served as the chair of the National Governor’s Association.
His signature initiative was called “Disagree Better,” aimed at finding ways to disagree that move people toward solutions through public debates, service projects and public service announcements.
Mark Thomas, who served as Cox’s chief of staff for four years when he was a lieutenant governor, pointed to a TV ad Cox did with his Democratic opponent Chris Peterson in the final days of the duo's 2020 campaign for governor.
“We can debate issues without degrading each other’s characters,” Peterson says in the ad. “Win or lose, in Utah, we work together.”
“We can disagree without hating each other,” Cox adds. “Let’s show the country that there’s a better way.”
Thomas, now chief of staff to the Utah Senate, said Cox is always trying to figure out the best way to navigate the issues of the day.
“We have been in kind of a grand experiment for the past decade as social media has become such an integral part of our lives,” he said. “And we say things that we probably wouldn't otherwise say except for on social media.”
Utah state Sen. Luz Escamilla, a Democrat, has known Cox for over a decade. She said Cox reflects the “Utah style” of engaging on different conversations.
“We call it the Utah way,” she said. “We're not perfect. But we agree to disagree in a respectful manner but also hopefully find consensus in good public policy.”
Civil discourse should be a given in America, said Utah state Rep. Kristen Chevrier, who is a Republican.
"Leadership in moments like this is about coming together and rising above division and helping people heal—particularly our young people who were there," she said. "Somehow we need to stop being triggered by differences of opinion."
She said she agreed with Cox's approach.
"Our country was founded on vigorous debate," she said.
Emily Stembridge, who lives in Lehi, which is about a 20-minute drive from Utah Valley University, said she would have attended Kirk’s event if she had not been travelling.
The registered Republican said she appreciated the governor’s measured comments.
“Those who have been bestowed with a unique leadership position are responsible to be an example of kindness and caring for our fellow man,” she said. “To see anything less is incredible disheartening. It’s the small, individual, everyday acts that lead to actual change.”
'It's an attack on all of us'
On the morning of Sept. 12, Cox once again led a news conference about Kirk's death, this time to announce the apprehension of a suspect in the assassination. He again urged Americans to come together.
"It's important that we, with eyes wide open, understand what's happening in our country today," Cox said, flanked by state and federal officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel. "I've heard people say, 'Well, why are we, why are we so invested in this? There's violence happening all across our country, and violence is tragic everywhere.'"
"Every life taken is, is a child of God who deserves our love and respect and dignity," Cox added. "This is, this is certainly about the tragic death, assassination, political assassination of Charlie Kirk, but it is also much bigger than an attack on an individual. It is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on the American experiment. It is an attack on our ideals. This cuts to the very foundation of who we are, of who we have been and who we could be in better times."
Cox then noted that political violence is different. Freedom of expression is enshrined in the country's founding documents and Kirk's death while engaging in free speech "makes it more difficult for people to feel like they can share their ideas, that they can speak freely," he said.
"We will never be able to solve all the other problems, including the violence problems that people are worried about if we can't have a clash of ideas safely and securely, especially those ideas with which you disagree," the governor continued. "That's why this matters so much."
Cox then turned his attention to American's youth − those who loved Kirk and those who hated him. Cox urged people of all political persuasions − "every American, Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us" −to reject political violence and find common ground.
"Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now," he said, "not by pretending differences don't matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations."
"We can return violence with violence," the governor continued. "We can return hate with hate. And that's the problem with political violence, is it metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side. And at some point we have to find an off ramp, or it's going to get much, much worse."
"I still believe in our country, and I know Charlie Kirk believed in our country," Cox said before taking questions about the investigation. "I still believe that there is more good among us than evil, and I still believe that we can change the course of history."
Contributing: Duane W. Gang
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox championed 'Disagree Better.' Kirk's killing put it to the test
Reporting by Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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