- Gov. Cox said Utah has led the nation in responding to the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
- Cox's Disagree Better nonprofit announced resources to help Utahns counter polarization.
- This is an "opportunity for for all peacemakers in this country," Cox told the Deseret News.
The nation’s spotlight shined on Utah this week when it became the site of one of the most public political assassinations in U.S. history.
On Wednesday, Charlie Kirk, a well-known conservative youth organizer, was shot to death in front of a crowd of 3,000 at Utah Valley University, with videos quickly circulating across the country and around the globe.
The horrific murder of Kirk, who left behind his wife, Erika, and two children under 4, embodied the spiraling political polarization that Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has used his platform to call out and condemn for the past four years.
“My whole hope is that this is a catalyst to help us find that off-ramp that we desperately need,” Cox said in an interview with the Deseret News on Friday. “And I think Utah is showing the way.”
What did Gov. Cox say about Charlie Kirk?
As chair of the National Governors Association from 2023 to 2024, Cox led a “Disagree Better” initiative modeling healthy dialogue between members of opposing political parties. If the nation did not turn down the rhetorical temperature, Cox warned, political violence would increase.
With the eyes and ears of the nation focused on him at multiple press conferences this week where he took center stage, Cox highlighted Kirk’s focus on the free exchange of ideas and forgiving enemies, while also urging Americans to avoid the “cancer” of social media, to engage in debates with respect and to “stop hating our fellow Americans.”
The 2nd-term governor, who received praise from across the political spectrum for his messages, framed the tragic episode as a “watershed” moment for the country’s political system that would determine whether the U.S. would reach “the end of a dark chapter” or start “the beginning of a darker” one.
“All eyes are on Utah. This is also an opportunity to show the country a way through this,” Cox told the Deseret News. “And that way is through kindness and service to our neighbors and building our communities, and I think honoring the things that (Kirk) stood for — which are passionate debate, free speech, a competition of ideas — that go back to the very founding of our nation.”
What is Disagree Better doing now?
On Friday, the newly formed Disagree Better nonprofit group, with Cox as its chair, made its debut by directing an event at the Utah Capitol Building to show that Utah’s response to the assassination of Kirk has the potential to help prevent future political violence.
Disagree Better executive director Marianne Viray gathered with representatives from Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute, and other national bridge-building initiatives like Braver Angels, the Dignity Index and Living Room Conversations, whose leadership reside in Utah.
At the press conference, which was sponsored by Mormon Women for Ethical Government, Viray announced the launch of a new website, TurnToward.us, that Disagree Better’s coalition of partners put together in response to the assassination of Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA.
“Disagree better was absolutely made to be able to respond to this moment,” Viray told the Deseret News. “This tragic event of this week in Utah has elevated this message and reaching more people than it had previously.”
The new website features one dozen resources intended to help people navigate the vitriolic political environment, including lessons on building relationships with those with whom they disagree and workshops on how to find common ground with others.
Rising acceptance of political violence
Much of the reaction to Kirk’s death on social media does not point to decreasing partisan animosity. Hundreds of posts from apparently left-leaning accounts have been found celebrating the assassination of Kirk as a perceived political enemy.
Others from the right have declared that what happened to Kirk should lead to greater aggression against their ideological foes. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who considered Kirk a close political ally, said on Thursday “we just have to beat the hell” out of “radical left lunatics.”
In his interview with the Deseret News, Cox called Trump’s response “very normal” and “how most people are feeling.” The alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from Washington County, did, in fact, appear to have been motivated by “a radical left ideology” that had “engulfed” him, Cox said.
But the president has also indicated his desire to deescalate the nation’s recent streak of political violence, Cox said. Cox pointed out that Trump was the first person to call him after his Friday press conference to thank him for his words and to reemphasize Kirk’s message of nonviolence
However, at least portions of the country appear to becoming less interested in the message Cox has to offer.
A FIRE poll released on Tuesday found that a record one-third of college students now say that resorting to violence to stop a campus speech is acceptable — even if only rarely.
On Thursday, a YouGov poll found an astonishing partisan disparity in response to whether individuals thought it was acceptable for a person “to be happy about the death of a public figure they oppose.”
Of the nearly 4,000 respondents, 77% of Republicans said it is “always unacceptable” to be happy about the death of a public figure they oppose, compared to just 38% of Democrats who felt the same way.
At Friday’s event, the former leader of Utah Young Republicans, Zac Wilson, and current leader of Utah Young Democrats, Jack Davis, led by example in showing their peers how to cross partisan divides.
The duo, who met as BYU students, committed to get lunch together and invest in a real friendship, despite disagreeing on almost all issues, because they agreed on one important issue: ensuring that political violence does not “take root here” and erode the “fundamental right” of free expression in Utah.
A UVU student, who was a member of Braver Angels, and two BYU students, who started the “Peacemaker Project,” joined other college students at the event, saying that Wednesday’s assassination had convinced them to redouble their efforts to make campuses a place where peaceful debate can thrive.
Is Utah prepared to respond?
Each speaker at the event, including Governing Group PAC founder Becky Edwards, and Dignity Index co-founder Tami Pyfer, said Utah was uniquely positioned to lead the nation after tragedy struck the Beehive State.
In his remarks on Friday, Cox said he had prayed that Kirk’s murderer was not a member of the Utah community, known for its unparalleled levels of social capital, charitable giving, volunteer service and religious attendance.
“I thought it would make it easier on us, if we could just say, hey, we don’t do that here,” Cox told the nation. “But it did happen here, and it was one of us.”
The fact that Kirk’s murder at the hands of a fellow Utahn felt so personal for so many Utahns is actually evidence of how strong the perception of Utah community is, according to Paul Edwards, the director of BYU’s Wheatley Institute.
Utah is unique in preserving its sense of community into the 21st century, Edwards said, and now is a time for introspection into how the state can encourage young people to see political opponents as “a person to be engaged” instead of “an object to be eradicated.”
Patrick Mason, who holds the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University, also attended the event, after joining other attendees in penning a Deseret News op-ed.
He said Utah’s unique heritage as a place settled by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bound together by their love of faith, family and freedom is well-suited to respond to the events of Wednesday that rocked Utah communities.
“No community anywhere in the United States is immune from the forces of polarization,” Mason told the Deseret News. “The question is not immunity, but resilience. Can we actually respond to when the virus of hate ... comes in to our community? Can we produce enough antibodies in order to overtake it?”
The political assassination that occurred in Orem, Utah is the sad fulfillment of what experts said was coming if the nation’s political discourse continued to worsen, Cox told the Deseret News.
According to Cox, polarization must be addressed at the individual level. It will take more than one group, or one leader to initiate a lasting shift, and concerned citizens should not wait for an indication from a certain elected official to change their behavior, Cox said.
“As we’re celebrating 250 years, I think there really is this opportunity to remind us who we are,” Cox said. “It’s certainly an opportunity for all peacemakers in this country.”
