Utah Republican Party Chair Rob Axson confirmed on Wednesday that he will seek reelection as the leader of the state GOP after former gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman announced his intention to run last month.
Over the past two years, Axson’s supporters say he has done his best to bridge Republican divides, which may have reached their deepest point during the 2024 election cycle when Lyman launched a write-in campaign for governor instead of supporting Republican primary victor Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.
Ahead of the state GOP’s organizing convention on May 17, Lyman has laid out his vision to use the chairmanship to fight against Utah’s political establishment on elections, transparency and unfounded allegations of corruption, while Axson has staked out a plan for growing a principled, big-tent party of the future.
“I look at political parties as being vehicles that can be force multipliers for good and also can be distractions,” Axson told the Deseret News. “And I believe that what we’ve done so far over the last two years is meaningfully move the party in a positive direction where it can continue to be a force multiplier for good.”
The battle for control of the Utah Republican Party comes down to which candidate is most capable of navigating intraparty rifts and raising money for Republican nominees, according to the state’s top GOP insiders.
But the outcome of the race will decide much more than donor dollars, they say. It could determine whether the party, as an influential organization in the state, continues to exist at all.
Up for the job?
As one of the party’s top donors and one of its two national committee members, Brad Bonham said he understands why fellow party members might be split on Utah’s GOP succession.
Lyman is a strong candidate, Bonham said — having received more than 200,500 write-in votes in the general election and having “exposed some things that need fixing” with the signature-gathering process.
But it is equally hard to ignore Axson’s stellar track record, according to Bonham.
“We’ve never had more success than the last 18 months,” Bonham said. “Rob has literally spearheaded it, top to bottom.”
The 2024 election cycle saw the Utah Republican Party nearly triple its fundraising receipts compared to the previous two presidential election years, with a total of nearly $3 million — surpassing fundraising hauls from at least the past two decades.
Some of the donations drawn to the party over the last year-and-a-half included nearly $1.7 million from President Donald Trump’s election PAC, and tens of thousands of dollars from former Trump advisers, like Jared Kushner, and current ones, like Scott Bessent, Linda McMahon and Elon Musk.
The most important part of having full coffers was being able to cut “six figures worth of checks to the party’s nominees last year,” Bonham said.
For these same reasons, Bonham’s counterpart, national committeewoman Kim Coleman, said she supports Axson for another term, pointing to his historic fundraising and unprecedented efforts to help GOP candidates in Arizona and Nevada.
Having worked with Axson and Lyman for many years, Coleman said she can attest to both candidates’ love for the state and commitment to the party platform.
“The main differences are style and tone and ability to motivate people to action, whether that is showing up or writing checks,” Coleman said. “And even the best vision and message requires effective fundraising to spread that message and make things happen.”
But fundraising is only one piece of the GOP chair’s job description.
According to Stan Lockhart, who held Axson’s position from 2007-2009, a chair must also serve as the spokesperson for three very different groups: the roughly 200 State Central Committee members, the over 4,000 state delegates and the nearly 950,000 registered Republicans.
“Rob has done as well or better job than anybody else could do it in the state,” Lockhart said.
Utah Rep. Phil Lyman speaks to members of the media after Utah’s gubernatorial GOP primary debate held at the Eccles Broadcast Center in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
That doesn’t mean Axson’s first term went without a hitch.
Carson Jorgensen, the party’s chair from 2021-2023, praised the party’s balance sheet under Axson but pointed to last year’s caucus night, which was plagued by a logistical meltdown, and the subsequent nominating convention, which broke into booing of incumbents multiple times during the 12-hour marathon, as areas for improvement during a second term.
If given the opportunity, Axson said he will prioritize learning from these experiences and expanding the party’s influence with better data collection, broader outreach to diverse demographics and more persuasive messaging for Salt Lake County voters to put the party “on a path of continued relevance.”
Same goals, different approach
This path might look very different under a Lyman chairmanship.
In his announcement, Lyman said the imperative during his tenure would be to reclaim “the high ground that has been ceded to imposters in our own party.”
Lyman later outlined his “top four priorities,” with No. 1 being to eliminate the signature-gathering route to the primary ballot and to refuse party “backing, endorsement or funding” to any candidate that gathers signatures.
His other top issues would be to disrupt the establishment and to “grow the Republican voter base” by reengaging “disenfranchised” conservatives and to advocate for local government control.
“As your chair, I will bring the message of honestly (sic), accountability, and light to all those who believe in conservative politics and Republican principles,” Lyman said.
Jen Garner, one of the 14 State Central Committee members from Davis County, said Lyman has shown he is “ahead of the curve” on issues, “doesn’t give up” and is “dedicated to transparency.”
“It’s been difficult to see division, but I have every confidence that Lyman … is going to bring renewed enthusiasm, trust and hope for Utah’s future,” Garner said.
But for one elected official — who voted for Lyman in the governor’s race — the level of division Lyman may continue to cause overshadows other considerations.
While the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, backed Lyman’s efforts to challenge current election practices, the official said that a Lyman chairmanship would cause donors to flee and could wipe out the party’s influence in campaigns and on Capitol Hill.
“Relationships matter. Phil has burned all of his bridges,” the official said. “In summary, if Phil wins this position, our party is dead.”
Washington County GOP chair Lesa Sandberg also worries that Lyman’s style could impact the “ability to fundraise” and “establish good relations” with elected officials, making it difficult for him to accomplish his goals — many of which are shared by Axson, Sandberg said.
“It’s their approach that is different,” Sandberg said. “Rob wants to bring everybody to the table, wants to be more inclusive, wants to work with legislators to do it.”
Like Sandberg, former Salt Lake County GOP chair Chris Null — who finished his second term on Saturday — is no fan of the current signature-workaround to the caucus-convention system.
And as someone who dug into the data on signature gathering, Null said he is glad that Lyman has put the spotlight on signature verification and transparency.
But he feels that Lyman’s scorched earth ethos has “ostracized” too many stakeholders from the bottom up.
“It’s going to be hard for somebody like Phil to run the party because a lot of people don’t want to work with them anymore,” Null said. “I think we all agree on the issues and that we want to solve them. The problem is that some of us want to work together and some of us want to work against each other and that’s the frustrating part that we’re seeing right now.”
There is a fair chance that Lyman will win again among the state delegates that nominated him in the gubernatorial race with 68% of the vote last April, according to Lockhart.
But if he takes the GOP chair’s seat, Lyman would be expected to do the one thing he has not done, Lockhart said: support winning Republicans he disagrees with, instead of filming advertisements with their Democratic opponents.
