SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court has rejected Republican candidate for governor Phil Lyman's request to remove Governor Spencer Cox from office and other top GOP candidates from the November ballot.
In an order handed down late Tuesday, the state's top court declared that Lyman was not entitled to the "extraordinary" relief that he sought. Lyman, acting as his own lawyer, asked the Court to annul the results of the primary election for any Republican candidate who failed to get at least 60% of the party convention's vote; replace them with convention nominees (who may have lost the primary); and remove Governor Spencer Cox and Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson from office for malfeasance.
"Mr. Lyman cites no authority to support his assertion that a political party’s internal rules override state election law," Chief Justice Matthew Durrant wrote in the opinion.
Lyman was contesting the results of the GOP primary, raising questions about signatures the Cox campaign had gathered to earn a spot on the ballot. Under Utah law, a candidate can either go through the caucus and convention system or gather a required amount of signatures to appear on the ballot. Lyman won the GOP convention nomination, but Cox gathered signatures and won the primary by 37,525 votes.
Lyman's campaign has alleged that there was impropriety in the signatures gathered by the Cox campaign. Of his request to have Cox and Henderson removed from office, Chief Justice Durrant wrote: "Mr. Lyman is not entitled to relief under this provision because he has offered no viable factual or legal basis for the remedy he requests."
The Lyman campaign can still pursue its request to inspect signatures through a separate lawsuit in a lower court, Chief Justice Durrant wrote.
“We plan to file an appeal,” Lyman said in a text message to FOX 13 News.
In a statement, Lt. Gov. Henderson blasted Lyman.
"For all his talk of election integrity, Phil Lyman is the only candidate in the state who has actively tried to steal an election by demanding that the Supreme Court crown him the victor of a race he soundly lost. Every Utahn should be appalled by Lyman's shameful disregard for the rule of law, the state constitution, and the will of the voters. In America, we don't win elections through the courts-we win or lose at the ballot box," she wrote.
In postings on social media, Lyman has said he intends to run as a write-in candidate.
Read the Utah Supreme Court's ruling here:
