Jon Huntsman will not attempt a write-in campaign for Utah governor, he announced Friday evening in a Facebook message, saying that while proceeding with such a last-ditch effort would be a “great theoretical game,” it would end up sowing division.
“While we respect the concerned voices of Utahns from every corner of the political spectrum, our earlier words also still hold true — the primary voters have spoken,” wrote Huntsman, who narrowly lost the GOP contest to Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox. “Even the closest of races like ours are subject to rules, and we respect that outcome.”
Huntsman, a former Utah governor who left the post in 2009 to serve as U.S. ambassador to China, wrote that he remained concerned about the state’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and about the coronavirus task force that Cox led.
”Because if there was corruption, it should never die in darkness, and power should never silence truth,” he wrote. “But mostly, the people of Utah deserve the highest of ethics in government, something we worked had to maintain as governor, as I hope will be the case with future administrations.”
Following Huntsman’s June primary loss, his supporters have been pressing him to re-enter the gubernatorial race as a write-in candidate. A group of these backers met with him in recent days to convince him that such a bid would be viable and necessary, given the fact that Cox captured the nomination with less than majority support.
In Huntsman’s Facebook announcement, posted on his wife’s account, he called these supporters “irrepressible champions for a better state” who simply felt that “such a pathetically broken electoral system shouldn’t be the last word.”
Huntsman had until Monday to file as a write-in candidate for the general election against Cox and Democratic candidate Chris Peterson.
This story will be updated.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/3b4afh0
August 29, 2020 at 08:12AM
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