SALT LAKE CITY — "If you can't beat 'em, join someone else who maybe can?"
It's a Utah twist to a popular saying, and it's drawing eyeballs through a new ad uniting political party rivals in an attack on Gov. Spencer Cox ahead of November's election.
The ad features defeated GOP gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman joining forces with current Democratic candidate Brian King, with both mocking the governor's personal "Disagree Better" platform.
Right off the bat, both men admit they don't agree on most of the issues facing Utahns, such as the role of government, public lands, and reproductive rights. However, they join together in saying that Cox should no longer be the state's top official.
Although the ad was produced by the King campaign, Lyman jokingly attempts to get voters to write-in his name at the ballot in November.
After failing to defeat Cox in the GOP primary, Lyman was rejected by the Utah Supreme Court this week in his efforts to remove Cox and other top GOP candidates from the ballot. He had previously asked the Court to annul the primary results for any Republican candidate who failed to get at least 60% of the party convention's vote.
Lyman's own party came down on him for participating in an advertisement supporting King.
"Phil does not speak for the Utah Republican Party or most Republicans in Utah who want to see this state stay red," wrote party chairman Robert Axson.
