Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday finally commented on the controversy that surrounded Utah Valley University and its choice of 2026 commencement speaker, Sharon McMahon.
It was announced earlier this month that McMahon, who calls herself “America’s Government Teacher,” would be the headline speaker at this year’s UVU commencement. Criticism then surged across social media, including among Utah’s GOP congressional leadership, who sharply criticized the university’s decision to invite McMahon.
The controversy centered around comments she made about conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk shortly after thousands witnessed his assassination on the Orem campus.
On Sept. 12, 2025, two days after Kirk’s death, in a since-deleted post, McMahon shared multiple quotes of Kirk’s — with little context — with the caption, “These aren’t sound bites taken out of context. Millions of people feel they were harmed, and the murder that was horrific and should never have happened does not magically erase what was said or done.”
UVU ultimately decided against having McMahon speak, citing security concerns.
What did Cox say?
Though Cox didn’t initially comment on the conflict, as many of his fellow GOP state leaders did, he told reporters during his monthly press conference Thursday that Utah experienced a sort of “microcosm” of what’s occurring on a national scale.
“I don’t love cancel culture, ever,” he said. “I hated it on the left. I don’t like it on the right.”
He did say, however, that he can understand why some people were unhappy with UVU’s decision to choose McMahon, and that graduations are not a time for controversy but for celebration.
“These are special times for families, for students,” Cox continued. “This was a terrible year. And so, regardless of where you fit on that spectrum, I think it’s important to recognize why some students were upset — and at the same time, we can defend free speech.”
Newsweek published a podcast with McMahon on Wednesday, the day of the graduation ceremony, in which she described the experience as getting canceled by the right. She criticized government officials by arguing that they used their power to silence a private individual, referring to herself.
“Not long after they announced me formally as the commencement speaker, there began an organized coercive pressure campaign on the part of government officials, both congressional officials and state-level officials, along with Turning Point USA, to try and pressure the school into removing me as the speaker,” she said.
“In fact, there was no outcry, really, from the student body,” she said, but UVU’s TPUSA president Caleb Chilcutt previously told the Deseret News that he and other students, still “reeling from his (Kirk’s) loss ... couldn’t be more disappointed in this university at such a hurtful and calloused decision.”
Moving on from controversy
Despite the dispute, the ceremony went on, and UVU President Astrid Tuminez’s commencement speech focused on moving forward with a joyful outlook.
“We live in difficult and lonely times marked by meanness, shrillness, hatred, fear mongering and, yes, even violence,” she said. “So why joy in especially difficult times? I believe it becomes ever more important to choose and create joy. It is a form of beautiful rebellion.”
On Thursday, Cox said that he, along with Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz and Senate President Stuart Adams, support inviting McMahon back to the university to speak.
“That’s, I think, how you resolve something like this,” Cox said, “where we don’t make it controversial for the students, but we still give the speaker an opportunity to speak on campus as it should be, and as I think Charlie Kirk would want it to be.”