A day after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox met briefly with his closest circle of confidants.
The manhunt for Kirk’s killer was still underway. It would be another several hours before the alleged shooter would turn himself in to Washington County police.
Cox was tired. His friends could see it in his eyes.
Beyond conducting a statewide law enforcement operation throughout the night, he felt the pressure of knowing his updates to the public were more than that.
The American people didn’t just want to know who had killed one of the most well-known Republican influencers in the country, they wanted to know what to do about it.
It was, without a doubt, “one of the darkest days in Utah’s history,” Cox told the Deseret News. A public assassination in the United States unlike anything else in more than half a century.
To Cox, who had spent the previous half-decade trying to raise the alarm about toxic polarization, the moment resembled a “powder keg” on the verge of detonating.
Before taking the podium on Wednesday and Thursday, and again on Friday morning to announce that the suspect had been apprehended, he said a prayer for “moral clarity.”
Then, Utah’s governor made a plea to the nation.
Over the course of three press conferences Cox took the problem head on, condemning political violence, excoriating social media and asking Americans to look in the mirror.
Were they rejoicing over a murder? Were they hungry for revenge? Were they blaming just one side? Or had Kirk’s murder opened their eyes to a culture of contempt?
When Cox stepped away from the podium, he had become, to many, something of a spokesperson for the exhausted majority who yearned for a return to normalcy.
A return to disagreement without the hate that had turned his state into a crime scene.
To a greater degree than remarks in Pennsylvania and Minnesota following politically motivated attacks last year, the message from the Beehive State struck with bipartisan force.
Leaders from across the political spectrum praised Cox’s choice of words. Even President Donald Trump said he agreed with the governor’s response “100%.”
A year later — despite rampant conspiracies, radical candidates and cultural rifts — Cox prays the tragedy, and the way regular Utahns responded with unity, is not forgotten.
“I hope that the lesson is that we can come together, that we can find our better angels,” Cox told the Deseret News. “That’s what I hope people will remember.”
Ahead of the anniversary of Kirk’s death, Cox has released his first book, “Off Ramp: How to Be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt,” centered around the assassination.
In interviews with the Deseret News, Cox and bridge-building advocates, reflected on how the insights from Kirk’s killing on Sept. 10, 2025, have shaped the past year, and can spur future action.
‘The real story’ behind Cox’s comments
Tech entrepreneur, and behind-the-scenes political strategist, Owen Fuller was scheduled to speak with Cox at an event on the afternoon of Sept. 10. He was preparing when he heard the news.
“Of course, everything changed immediately,” Fuller told the Deseret News. “I saw Spencer spring into action.”
Fuller has supported the governor’s Disagree Better message from the beginning, putting money behind the mission through his All in for Utah nonprofit foundation and political arm.
But what made the governor’s statements that week stand out was not his background in depolarization research, according to Fuller. It was the Utah values he was able to convey.
“I think that’s the real story,” Fuller said.
During those press conferences, the governor repeatedly referenced how the people of Utah could show the nation the way to learn from, and avoid, a spiral of violence.
Instead of riots, there were peaceful rallies. Instead of calls for revolution, there were signs that read “pray for America.” In true Utah fashion, there were spontaneous neighborhood gatherings calling for solidarity.
But one year on it can be easy to conclude these calls went unheeded.
Over the past several months, the political right has faced a reckoning over antisemitic influencers, while the left has seen Marxist streamer Hasan Piker become a mainstay of progressive campaigns.
Piker and other internet personalities have called for political violence and later claimed they were joking. But their young audience is much more likely to justify violence against perceived ideological foes.
This is the unfortunate product of a pattern where the fringes have found their way to the mainstream, Cox told the Deseret News. But there are also signs that Americans are bucking the trend.
Cox pointed to congressional primaries among Republicans, like in Wyoming, and among Democrats, like in Utah’s 1st District, where voters have made their preference for pragmatism felt.
It remains true that the loudest voices online get the most attention, while the steps that lead to healthy dialogue rarely make the headlines, he said. This is why he again points to Utah for solutions.
Cox believes overcoming tribalism starts by treating family members with the same respect that is lacking in the political sphere. Interpersonal relationships, he said, should matter more than politics.
Civic virtues will crumble as traditional institutions, like family, church and volunteer organizations, continue to fade, Cox said, especially if those sources of belonging are replaced by partisan identity.
Reversing the climate that leads to political violence will take much more than a press conference, according to Cox. It must take the form of a genuine movement, which he hopes his book contributes to.
“This is something that took years to build; it’s going to take years to unwind,” he said.
Many of those most dedicated to averting America’s divisive trajectory believe there is also the need for top-down direction: leaders like Cox who show people that politics does not have to be this way.
While internet enclaves can “cultivate extremism,” elected officials have an outsized role in creating, or removing, permission structures for violence, Disagree Better executive director Marianne Viray said.
The responsibility for leaders to model political de-escalation may have never been greater, she said.
“The alternative is civil war,” Viray told the Deseret News. “That’s where this will go if these tribal tendencies and this extreme hate continues to fester and grow. That’s where we end up.”
Established to give a second life to Cox’s National Governors Association initiative by the same name, Disagree Better has plans to iterate on the tactics that drew attention to Cox long before Sept. 10.
The nonprofit is producing ads showcasing friendly arguments between federal and state officials of different parties. It also hosts these conversations on campuses to demonstrate civil political dialogue.
Whose fault is political violence?
But there are still others who feel the Disagree Better approach is misguided because it seeks compromise between views that are fundamentally irreconcilable and encourages kindness where boldness is needed.
Following Kirk’s assassination, Trump declared that the threat to the nation is the “radical left.” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller then pledged to use government power to destroy left-wing “terrorist networks.”
This concern is real. But federal intervention won’t get at the root of it because extremism is empowered by everyday Americans, and the people they elect, according to UNITE CEO Tim Shriver, who co-founded the Dignity Index.
It is tempting to place the blame on radicals, or on the algorithms that incite them, he said. But this ignores how current politicians are currently characterizing their opponents as evil, demonic or subhuman.
“We want to go hunt down some extremist who’s buried in some dark web cave and stop him or her,” Shriver told the Deseret News. “I think the source of this problem is much closer to us than we realize.”
The risk of political violence feels particularly close to the surface among Gen Z. A Gallup poll found three-in-ten Americans ages 18-29 say it is at least sometimes OK to use violence to achieve a political goal.
The reasons are many: over-parenting, isolation and social media incentives have created a generation that is hyper-sensitive to hard interactions, Braver Angels CEO Maury Giles told the Deseret News.
This has been accompanied by an era in politics where debate is dominated by bad role models, according to Giles. But that doesn’t mean the solution is singing “kumbaya” or cordoning off safe spaces.
A major misconception about the work of depolarization is that it is about “niceness,” when in reality it means having the courage to have uncomfortable, but productive conversations, Giles said.
The stakes could not be higher.
“If nobody talks about politics, that’s called a dictatorship,” he said. “So I believe it’s the higher road, but it’s also the necessary road for self-government.”
Despite persistent setbacks, Cox is convinced Americans want to take this path.
Utah’s response to Kirk’s assassination is still what people bring up when they meet him as he travels the country, Cox said. The pendulum on toxic polarization, he believes, is starting to swing back.
Utah has a unique obligation to pioneer this new trail, according to the governor. This starts, he said, by reflecting on Kirk’s death, and his example of fearless free speech coupled with decency.
“There’s an obligation to remember what happened because that’s how we learn,” Cox said. “We commemorate the good things, but we should also commemorate the tragedies so that we can prevent that from happening again.”
The state will have an executive proclamation recognizing the anniversary, Cox said. He also confirmed that Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed, will eventually have a permanent memorial.
In a statement to the Deseret News, the UVU Memorial Committee said it spent the past several months listening to students, faculty and community leaders, and collaborating with Turning Point USA on the memorial.
“We care deeply about getting this right,” the committee said. “This work continues because every perspective matters as we develop a memorial that is meaningful, respectful, and helps the Utah Valley University campus and community heal.”
Turning Point USA will hold the “Freedom Built to Last Memorial” at UVU’s UCCU Center on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026.