SALT LAKE CITY — More than a dozen county commissioners, largely from rural Utah, gathered at the state Capitol Wednesday to endorse Gov. Gary Herbert in the upcoming GOP primary election.
Herbert, a Utah County commissioner for 14 years before becoming lieutenant governor and then governor, faces a challenge in his bid to be elected to a second full term from a fellow Republican, Overstock.com Chairman Jonathan Johnson.
Commissioners praised the governor's knowledge of public lands and other issues facing local governments, as well as his appointment of Spencer Cox, a former commissioner and legislator from Sanpete County, as his lieutenant governor.
"Having a commissioner become a governor and a lieutenant governor is significant, because they know what's going on from the ground up," Tooele County Commission Chairman Wade Bitner said.
In all, more than 30 county commissioners have endorsed the governor, his campaign said.
Herbert said the endorsements are "not just of our policies, but what we've done," on issues ranging from economic development to the state's ongoing legal challenges against the federal government's control of the use of rural roadways.
— Lisa Riley Roche
Email: lisa@deseretnews.com
Twitter: DNewsPolitics