Sam Benson writes: "The 2016 election was 'the hardest election, for me, of my life,' Gov. Spencer Cox said. He couldn’t manage to vote that year for either Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, or his own party’s choice, Donald Trump. He ended up writing in someone else.
"By 2020, Cox came around: he acknowledged the Trump administration was doing 'some really good things' and said he would support Trump’s reelection effort. But by November, he couldn’t bring himself to vote for Trump. He, again, wrote in someone else’s name.
"Over the four subsequent years, Cox built a national profile as a Republican governor openly skeptical of Trump’s grip on the GOP. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Cox announced that he would, in fact, be supporting Trump in 2024. It shocked many Utah Republicans — not in the slightest because Cox, just a week earlier, said he would write in a candidate again during a CNN appearance.
"The dilemma that Cox faced for eight years is shared by thousands of religious conservatives in the West. To many, Trump’s character and fitness for office are enough to keep these lifelong Republicans from enthusiastically supporting him. But many do not find the alternative, Vice President Kamala Harris, to be palatable, either: she’s a progressive Democrat with whom they share little in common on policy."
Read more about conservative people of faith and the 2024 presidential election.
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