SALT LAKE CITY Utah Gov. Spencer Cox told the 1,904 delegates in attendance at the Utah Republican Party s Organizing Convention on Saturday that they need to spend more time volunteering and coming together.
Cox, and Sen. Mitt Romney received boos and obvious disapproval at moments from some in attendance, and Romney survived a censure vote by delegates. But throughout the day the call from them and other Republican leaders was the need to unify the party in both message and behavior to withstand challenges from the left.
They then followed 8 hours of speeches and delegate work with the selection of Carson Jorgensen, 31, a sheep farmer, as the party s new chairman, beating three other candidates, including veteran Stewart Peay, who some had pegged as the favorite going into the convention.
Utah GOP Votes Against Censure of Romney Over Impeachment Votes
The Utah Republican Party voted narrowly on May 1 against censuring Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) for his votes to convict former President Donald Trump on impeachment charges in 2020 and 2021.
According to a final tally shared by KUTV reporter Michael Locklear, 711 delegates to the Utah GOP’s organizing convention voted to censure Romney, while 798 voted against.
The U.S. Senate acquitted Trump at the conclusion of both trials. Romney was the only Republican to vote for impeachment during the first trial, and was one of seven Republicans to do so in the second impeachment trial.
The Salt Lake Tribune recently published a repugnant ‘cartoon’ comparing Congressman Burgess Owens, our esteemed colleague and only black member of the Utah delegation, to a member of the Ku Klux Klan. This racially charged, perverse political statement is beyond the pale. We ask that The Salt Lake Tribune immediately take down this horrific image, issue a formal apology, and hold themselves to a higher standard, Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Mitt Romney, and Representatives Chris Stewart, John Curtis and Blake Moore said in a joint statement. If any one of these Utah pols uttered the white supremacist dogwhistle Burgess Owens used he would have been featured in the cartoon. Treating Owens differently because of his race is the definition of racism, Bagley wrote. If Owens doesn t want to be dunked for using white supremacist talking points then he shouldn t use white supremacist talking points.
On Monday, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and the other members of Utahâs congressional delegation sent a letter to President Joe Biden regarding the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.
âWe call upon you, and your administration, to support and engage in finding a long-term legislative solution and stop the vacillation of national monument boundaries in Utah,â the letter reads. âWe remain prepared to work in good faith and hope you do as well.â
In their letter, the Utah representatives asked the Biden administration for their assistance in finding a permanent legislative solution to these boundary disputes and statutory protections to prevent abuses of the Antiquities Act.
January 20, 2021
WASHINGTON (Jan. 20, 2021) Utah’s congressional delegation comprised of U.S. Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Mitt Romney (R-UT), Representatives Chris Stewart (R-UT), John Curtis (R-UT), Burgess Owens (R-UT), and Blake Moore (R-UT), as well as state officials including Gov. Spencer Cox, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, Attorney General Sean Reyes, Senate President Stuart Adams, and Speaker of the House Brad Wilson, issued the following statement regarding President Biden’s executive order directing the Department of the Interior to review the boundaries and conditions of the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments.
“For over 25 years Utah has been the center of controversial and divisive unilateral national monument decisions. Roughly two-thirds of our backyard belongs to the federal government, which has meant land management actions have often been done to us rather than with us. A review in name only with predetermined results, which ultimatel