State Rep. Phil Lyman announces candidacy for governor
Utah State Rep. Phil Lyman announced his candidacy for governor Monday. He’s the first potential primary challenger to Spencer Cox, the current governor, who has served in the position since 2021 and has said he plans to seek reelection.
Lyman, a Republican, has represented House District 69 in southeastern Utah since 2019 and before that was a San Juan County Commissioner for eight years. He’s made a name for himself by alleging election fraud and opposing federal land management.
In 2014, Lyman led an illegal ATV ride in a closed canyon to protest federal land management practices. He spent 10 days in jail and was convicted of misdemeanor trespassing for the event in 2015.
Rather than shy away from this, Lyman prominently displayed his mugshot in his YouTube candidacy announcement, saying he’s the only state legislator ever elected in Utah that had a parole officer during his election.
Sen. Mike Lee threatens to cut funding to UN over Hamas vote
Utah Sen. Mike Lee says he plans to introduce legislation to cut U.S. funding to the U.N. after a resolution condemning Hamas for the attacks against Israel earlier this month failed to pass.
The UN passed a resolution Friday calling for a humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas. It included a demand for civilian hostages to be released, but didn’t mention Hamas by name.
Canada and the U.S. tried to amend the resolution to condemn Hamas directly, but the amendment failed to win the needed two-thirds majority.
Sen. Lee, a Republican, said in a social media post it was time to withdraw all U.S. funding for the U.N. and that he had begun the process of drafting legislation to make that happen.
Historically, the U.S. has been the U.N.’s biggest supporter and accounted for nearly 20% of their budget in 2021.
