Utah Gov. Spencer Cox booed at Turning Point USA event at USU
Once praised for empathy toward LGBTQ youth, Cox faces hostility from hard-right crowd
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, once hailed by national media as a rare moderate Republican willing to speak with compassion about LGBTQ youth, was loudly booed at a Turning Point USA rally in Logan on Sept. 30. Some call this a visceral reminder of how deeply his 2022 veto of an anti-transgender sports bill still divides conservatives.
The event, held at Utah State University and billed as the first in-state appearance by the conservative youth group since the killing of its co-founder Charlie Kirk, drew a massive crowd of roughly 6,500. Attendees, many dressed in red MAGA hats and “Freedom” shirts matching what Kirk wore when he was shot and killed last month, filled the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum for what organizers called a tribute to Kirk’s “legacy and mission.”
When Cox took the stage alongside former Rep. Jason Chaffetz and Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, the mood quickly turned hostile.
Before he could speak, a wave of boos rippled through the arena — loud, sustained, and unmistakably aimed at the governor. Moderator Tyler Bowyer, Turning Point’s chief operating officer, urged the audience to “let’s facilitate a conversation,” but the heckling didn’t stop entirely.
For many in attendance, the reaction was less about Cox’s remarks that evening and more about his reputation as a Republican who, in their view, went soft on social issues. In 2022, Cox made national headlines when he vetoed a bill banning transgender girls from Utah school sports, writing in his veto letter that he wanted to protect “the 4 kids in Utah” known to be transgender athletes, saying, “Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few.”
At the time, Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk called for Cox’s expulsion from the Republican Party.
As Cox condemned political violence and called Kirk’s killing a “treasonous” attack on free speech and American ideals, much of the audience remained cold. His appeal for Americans to “stop hating each other” and spend less time online drew scattered applause, but it couldn’t drown out the boos.
By contrast, Chaffetz and Biggs, both known for their loyalty to Donald Trump and opposition to “woke” policies, received thunderous ovations, particularly when Chaffetz said, “You do not need a man with junk in a woman’s bathroom,” prompting cheers and chants.
Moderator Bowyer pushed Cox directly on whether Utah’s “soft politics” had “enabled people who are mentally ill” and questioned whether his “Disagree Better” campaign — a national initiative encouraging civility — was “really a both-sides issue.”
Cox pushed back, insisting the divide wasn’t between left and right but “between good and evil.” He also noted that “there are violent people on the far right,” a comment that earned groans and jeers.
At one point, Cox invoked the recent death of LDS Church president Russell M. Nelson, quoting Nelson’s belief that “anger never persuades.” The audience responded with rare applause, one of the few moments when the room seemed to soften toward him.
“Peacemaking is not soft,” Cox said. “It’s the hardest thing you can do.”
Still, when audience questions opened up, the focus returned to his veto of the transgender sports ban. One student asked bluntly why he “betrayed conservative values.” Cox explained that he vetoed the original bill because he believed it would be overturned in court, later working with lawmakers on a compromise to create a commission to review trans athlete eligibility.
“I think Charlie and I would agree on 99 percent of things,” Cox said, adding that while Kirk likely would have disagreed with him on transgender issues, “what matters is that we talk to each other, even when we don’t agree.”
For LGBTQ Utahns, the moment captured the governor’s increasingly uneasy position: a Republican leader who once showed rare empathy toward queer and trans youth now finding himself shouted down by the same movement he’s tried to placate.
Though Cox continues to distance himself from the harsher rhetoric of the far right, he has since signed several anti-LGBTQ measures into law, including restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors and limits on name and pronoun use in schools — a pattern critics say undercuts his earlier words of compassion.
At Utah State, that contradiction played out in real time: a governor caught between moderation and the fury of a conservative base that no longer tolerates even the suggestion of inclusion.
