ST. GEORGE — The four candidates running in the Republican primary to unseat Gov. Spencer Cox made their case to be governor and took questions during the Washington County Republican Women’s monthly luncheon at the Dixie Academy Ballroom on Thursday. 

Candidates expressed opposition to diversity and equity measures, said excessive government spending is causing more income disparity, expressed support for former President Donald Trump, said current President Joe Biden should be in prison, and one candidate announced they have filed a lawsuit against one of Cox’s most prominent aides. 

Cox appeared via a recorded message but did not take questions from attendees, citing he was busy at the state Capitol. Cox’s calendar released to the media said he was meeting with his legislative team on Thursday morning. 

Race, diversity and immigration were the most prominent topics. 

“I’m not even sure if President Biden should have been even been on our ballot since he’s supporting a foreign invasion into our country,” Scott Robbins, a former Marine from Magna running for his first public office, said. “We were lied to, especially the white community, that diversity and multiculturalism includes us. I would like to see everyone get a voice, especially the white community, who has been shut out for the last 50 years. Mass invasion means mass deportation.”

Carson Jorgensen, a Mt. Pleasant resident who was the chairman of the Utah Republican Party from 2021 to 2023, said he agreed with Robbins and what the other candidates were saying on the stage concerning immigration, saying that “every state is a border state.”

“I just want to echo what everybody said here because I think we all believe the same thing when it comes to this. What’s happening in the southern border right now is not illegal liberation; it is invasion at this point,” Jorgensen said. “It’s not passive. They’re doing it on purpose. They’re not coming here to be Americans. They’re coming to invade America.”

In her opening statement, Sylvia Miera-Fisk, a film and broadcast producer from Bountiful and former member of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, revealed that she is suing Aimee Winder Newton, the senior advisor to Cox and a member of the Salt Lake County Council.

The lawsuit, obtained by St. George News, is an anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation lawsuit claiming a defamation lawsuit by Winder Newton toward her – part of an overall defamation lawsuit by former Salt Lake County GOP communications director David Robinson against several state and Republican Party officials. Anti-SLAPP lawsuits were strengthened by legislation in last year’s legislature.

“Winder Newton’s lawsuit against me was meant to intimidate me, silence me from speaking. That’s one major reason I’m running for governor. I am tired of the corruption in our government,” said Miera-Fisk, who added that she was holding back emotion after attending the funeral of her youngest son over the weekend. “The governor and his fixers need to understand that I’m not intimidated.”

Phil Lyman, a Utah House member representing several counties including Grand County, said Cox has failed to stand up to the federal government and protect the state. 

“If we’re waiting for the federal government to fix itself, we’re waiting for the wrong thing,” Lyman said. “Strong states make for a strong United States. And that’s only gonna happen with a governor who stands up.” 

In his video message, Cox also alluded to immigration.

“I’m committed to the rule of law and the safety and security of our communities,” Cox said in the video played at the luncheon. “This includes sending law enforcement and National Guard troops to the Texas border after receiving a request from our Texas counterparts. We need to secure our border, and I’m working to make that happen.” 

Robbins drew the most moments of spontaneous applause from those at the luncheon besides the applause at the end of statements, drawing eight moments of spontaneous applause for comments compared to six for Lyman, three for Miera Fisk and one for Jorgensen. 

Using an app showing decibel level, Lyman had the loudest applause at the end of the closing statements, followed by Jorgensen, Miera Fisk and Robbins. 

What follows are candidates’ direct responses to some of the questions asked during the luncheon. 

Tell us about your political experience.

Jorgensen:  I ran for Congress in 2019. Prior to that, my political experience was simply voting, but as we saw things progressed, we have to get involved. My political experience then was as chairman of the state party. I’ve worked locally and nationally on agricultural issues. I worked with Congress on issues of agriculture as well as here in the state. 

Miera-Fisk: I have always been politically involved. Most recently, I was precinct chair and I was on the executive committee of Davis County and was president of the Republican Women in Davis County. 

Robbins: I’ve just been involved in the Republican party since college. I helped on Mike Lee’s campaign (and) Jason Chaffetz’s campaign. I’ve attended protests on behalf of President Trump in Salt Lake. But I’ve always had a love for my country and a love for our people and been concerned about people with more money and more power, taking advantage of the little guy. 

Lyman: I’m a businessman and I started my accounting firm soon after I got out of college. I was county commissioner for years, been in the Legislature for six years. Quite often, I’m the only no vote on an issue with the Legislature. I disagree with my colleagues regularly. I disagree with you regularly and we try to make things happen.

Why are you the best to beat Cox?

Miera-Fisk: I’m not afraid of Mr. Cox. I’m tired of how he has handled our state. I’m distressed at the policies he supports when we have real issues that affect us. We have real life and death issues and he’s worried about bringing pro sports into our state. 

Robbins: I’ll be standing for a nation enriching immigration, which is basically (that) immigration needs to benefit us. I would like to replace this anti-white DEI, the professors even, because they didn’t take the Legislature and the governor seriously. They haven’t been punished for their anti-white discrimination. I want to see the white community be given a voice just like all these black student unions, BLM (Black Lives Matter). Everyone gets a voice. 

Lyman: I found myself on the opposite side of the spectrum so often from this governor. We implement diversity, equity, and inclusion. I stood up against that at the time. I said, ‘This is not Utah. This is not how things should be done.’ He (Cox) came out with a strong condemnation of (Utah School Board member) Natalie Cline on the state school board. This is a perfect time for the Legislature to not condemn, to stay out of something that is not a legislative matter. But the governor couldn’t stay out of that. I fought him before, I’ll fight him again.

Jorgensen:  What we have had for the past three years is not leadership. I hate to break it to everybody. It’s followship. We’ll wait to see what’s popular. You look at what happened in Texas and what was going on in the border, we should have been down there from day one. We should have been supporting Texas. 

What are your thoughts on illegal immigration?

Robbins: I’m not even sure if President Biden should have even been on our ballot since he’s supporting a foreign invasion into our country. Any president who supports foreigners over his own people, he should be in jail. It’s been the Catholic charity. It’s been the Red Cross. It’s been other nonprofits who receive our taxpayer dollars and then fund an invasion into our country. So I would like to see all those institutions and nonprofits that are operating in Utah face punishment for what they’ve been doing. 

Lyman: In December, I got the chance to go to the border and just before Christmas, we went down and got down to the wall. This is not a wall; it’s a monument. Article 4 of the Constitution says that the federal government has a duty to protect us from invasion. If we’re waiting for the federal government to fix itself, we’re waiting for the wrong thing. Strong states make for a strong United States. And that’s only gonna happen with a governor who stands up. 

Jorgensen:  I just want to echo what everybody said here because I think we all believe the same thing when it comes to this. What’s happening in the southern border right now is not illegal liberation. It is invasion at this point. It is no longer passive. They’re doing it on purpose. This country is a country of migrants. Our families all came here at some point or another from a different country. But the assimilation process and becoming an American, that’s what matters. 

Miera-Fisk: For decades, when I lived in Mexico, I lived among the citizens. I know what the poor looked like. This invasion of illegal infiltrators are well-orchestrated and well-funded. This cannot be tolerated anymore. Our citizens of this country are here for a reason. They come first, always come first. And these citizens of other countries … go home, build your countries, make them safe and secure for your posterity to grow. 

The governor appoints judges. What do you think are good qualities for a judge?

Lyman: This is a sensitive subject for me because I look at the appointments of the judges quite often. There are Democrats quite often, they’re from the left. The administration before did this. Cox has done this. I’ve always seen it as capitulation. So what makes a good judge? Obviously, someone who is impartial. Someone who is independent was not bought off by any special interest. 

Jorgensen:  We cannot continue to appoint these liberal judges when we’re in a conservative state. If we want to see our state come back to the right, if we want to see this live up to Utah values, it’s time to start appointing judges who share those values and continue to be impartial and fair because that is what the justice system in this country was based on.

Miera-Fisk: I have my own personal experience with an unjust judge — many in fact. But I’ve also had my experiences with good judges. And when I think of judges, it’s like when we were in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, we would sing a song. ‘He, the rule of over men must be just, must be just ruling in the fear of God.’ I would expect them to obey the law, to rule with justice and not on behalf of money. 

Robbins: There is actually a judge in Utah who ruled that transgender people can actually change their sex on their birth certificate. And it’s that kind of stupidity that I would like to see eliminated from the state, from the leadership and especially from judges. I would appoint judges who hold conservative values, who aren’t partial, who aren’t being bought off by special interests, who put the people first. 

Are you an America First candidate and do you endorse Donald Trump?

Jorgensen:  I’ve been with the president since day one. I appreciated his leadership. Don’t always agree with how he says stuff, but not everybody does. But I agree with his policy and I agree with his stance, and I agree with where our country was under him and the things that he did for the state of Utah by reducing the monument and by actually living by what he said. 

Miera-Fisk: I don’t know about America First, but the United States of America first. He’s an amazing man. And while we can point fingers and find fault, we have to look in the mirror for that too. Yes, I support President Trump. I will support him as the candidate

Robbins: Yes, I do support the America First agenda. I don’t think that’s anything controversial either. In fact, it is really controversial that a nation looking out for itself and its own people is considered controversial today. And I gladly support Trump’s policy on immigration in the border wall. Mass invasion requires mass deportation. We, the American people, we have a right to preserve our racial and cultural makeup. 

Lyman: I’m a supporter of Donald Trump. Back when he was first running, we went to our neighborhood caucus meeting and I was elected as a state delegate. There’s nothing that I can see in his record that bothers me from a policy standpoint. He overturned the Bears Ears, which is in my backyard. That was my fight. And for that, I am going to be eternally grateful.

What is your opinion on the new state flag? 

Miera-Fisk: What state flag? I honor the integrity and history of our original state flag. So as far as I’m concerned, we have one flag and I will always honor it as your governor. It will be the flag that flies over the Capitol. 

Robbins: I don’t even think it was the people of Utah or the descendants of the pioneers who wanted to change the state flag. And so it was our ancestors who made that flag. Some of the reasons they gave for wanting to change our state flag were for anti-white reasons, because they said, ‘We want to be more inclusive.’ It’s funny how with, you know, the liberals and other people, inclusivity always means we exclude white people and we erase their culture. I don’t think so. 

Lyman: The groups that pushed this flag are not the people that are friends in Utah, are not the people who share our values. How it came through and got passed by the Legislature is still one of those things that makes my head spin. I voted against it. I’ve got scars on my back to prove the fight that I took against the state flag. I ran the bill this year to try to restore it. 

Jorgensen: The change in the state flag to me was wrong. If they really want the new flag, put it on the ballot. We have to embrace our history. It’s part of our heritage, part of our culture. To change it in its entirety to me was absolutely wrong. When you take that vote away from the people and their ability to decide what represents them, you’re taking away a vote and that’s never the right thing to do. 

What do we need to do about wokeism in schools and clarify that woke is spread in schools through social-emotional learning, critical ethnic studies, pornographic books, comprehensive sexuality education and activist teachers? 

Robbins: That was my No. 2 issue for my campaign. I would like to see those who continue to support DEI, who think they just have to change the language, but they can still discriminate against white people and scapegoat us for the problems of Black and brown communities, I would like to see those people fired if possible, charged with a hate crime. I would also like to see anything associated with that gotten rid of out of our schools. My policy with regard to all theism will be simple. Bend or break. 

Lyman: I don’t know how many of you remember second grade. It’s confusing enough, you know. Let kids be kids and we’re not doing that. I love teachers. They’re my favorite people in my life. But some of these teachers … are actively indoctrinating our kids. What I would do from a governor’s standpoint is promote everything that gives parents a choice in how their kids are educated. We’re talking about critical race theory, like Scott’s kind of alluded to on some of these things. We are going to have a hard time overcoming as a government. As parents, you can definitely do your job and … (take) responsibility for those kids. 

Jorgensen:  What happened to ‘send you kids to school? Teach them to read, teach them to write.’ That was the fundamental basis of public education and it is a great thing in this country. I don’t understand why they feel the need to sexually adopt second graders. We used to get the birds and the bees talking in sixth grade and then you have your sexual education in high school. That’s plenty. 

Miera-Fisk: I was very blessed … to be able to personally experience amazing school teachers, my parents. I think that the social ideologies in our public school systems are a complete disaster and a perfect example of dangerous government overreach and government needs to leave our children alone. These sensitive issues about sexuality, gender issues … this is between parents and their children. Government needs to leave our children alone. 

What do we need to do to cut down on bureaucracy and become self-sustaining?

Lyman: This is back to the whole concept of statehood. When does government provide professional sports teams and stadiums to their people? This is not … the proper role of government. The proper rule of government is to protect us, protect our stuff. There are so many efficiencies we can have, we can free government dramatically, save a tremendous amount of money, serving the people so much better, and do it with a lot more intelligent effort. 

Jorgensen: Let’s use public schools as an example. We’re hiring administrators when we need more teachers and we make an administrative state in our public education, and that’s just using public ed. You look at the division of natural resources, the way they spend money is unthinkable. We come to say, No.’ We come to push back and we come to say, ‘We’re going to cut the budget.’ 

Miera-Fisk: What is government doing worried about professional sports when we can’t even drive safely on our terrible roads because of the weather? What are we concerned about? What is the No.1 cause of death? Does anyone know besides me? The No. 1 cause of death in our country is fentanyl, poison and illicit drugs. Don’t wait till it happens to you. I buried my son this weekend because of this problem. As your governor, I will put real issues that concern each and every one of us first.

Robbins: I would like to look at everything in the government, make sure that it actually makes sense, there’s a need for it. People who are, like, 85% white, they took our tax dollars to give to DEI programs. $12 million just to discriminate against white people, just to come up with policies about how to make our businesses and our schools and our other institutions less white. And to give handouts to non-whites. And that’s flipping ridiculous. Every one of those institutions who participate in that crap, they need to pay and they need to give us that money back.

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