Dear Governor Cox,
You have stated that you do not intend to run in the 2028 presidential election. Such a campaign would exert enormous personal and political pressure on you and your family. I cannot blame you for wanting to sidestep that, and as a stranger, I cannot speak to the multitude of private reasons surely guiding your decision. Still, I feel that Utahns and many other Americans have a great deal to gain from your presence in the presidential race and, should you be chosen to occupy the Oval, from your steady statesmanship. I urge you to reconsider your reluctance and throw yourself into a presidential campaign rooted in your uniquely reconciliatory message.
It is difficult to feel startled by even the most inflammatory news cycles in 2026. Government-inflicted terror in American cities, the dissolution of international amity, lawfare, warfare and trade-fare are Americans’ daily fare. Americans are sated on popular outrage to the point of numbness as the spirit of Yeats’ end-times prophecy seeps steadily into our exhausted public life: “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere… / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”
Despite my expectations, and for the very best reasons, your January 22nd State of the State Address startled me again. In what I suspect to be your most-viewed annual public address, you struck a tone that felt forceful, fresh, and full of grace—a powerful and deeply deliberate departure from the rhetoric of many of your fellow Republicans. Absent was any trace of MAGA’s signature grievance politics; the unrelenting mudslinging of blame at an ever-growing list of scapegoats meant to distract from MAGA’s fundamental political ineffectiveness.
But beyond that, you declined to indulge in any disparagement of people, parties, or opponents. This is unusual today. The politics of denigration, as prevalent on the Left as on the Right, are newly ubiquitous, poisonous, and unnecessary. The tone is ugly and the temperature is high; legislative effectiveness, successful coalition-building, and citizens’ sense of confidence and satisfaction are at historic lows.
You understand this better than anyone as the ‘Disagree Better’ governor. Of course, you have philosophical opponents: those who claim that civility and moderation are thin masks for inaction and serve only to ossify the status quo, or who worry that such an approach invites a ‘difference-splitting’ policy ethic which is no remedy for real injustice, or for whom incrementalism and ineffectiveness are synonyms.
I contend that such arguments misinterpret the real political history of this country and its republican form of government. Yes, coalitions and compromises have an imperfect record: for instance, they prolonged the national sin of slavery and led to Reconstruction’s failure. Still, hardly any significant upward inflection in the arc of social progress has occurred or endured without substantial consensus-building.
Though often difficult and long in the making, many of our defining civic landmarks—such as the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts, the legislative innovations of the New Deal, the GI Bill, and the Civil and Voting Rights Acts—represent hard-earned but deeply bipartisan progress. Governor Cox, your governing philosophy rejects the false binary of ‘getting along’ or ‘making progress.’ By virtue of its values, your presidency would be poised to usher in a new era of national healing and rebuilt governmental legitimacy.
There are, of course, questions about whether a Cox campaign would be viable. Can a Republican have any hope of winning after four years of Trump? Can a candidate who refuses to belittle or besmirch his opponents still triumph in America today? Can your fight against soulless social media companies capture America’s imagination and harness our will to self-improvement?
I don’t myself know how to answer these questions empirically, though other advocates of your candidacy, like journalist Jonathan Martin, have described you as a “long shot.” This may be true of you, but it was also true of obscure Abraham Lincoln, written-off Harry Truman, unknown Jimmy Carter, and history-defying Barack Obama.
Speaking more sentimentally, I believe that Americans don’t want a savior—we want an adult. We want someone who can bridle his passions, obey his better angels, and turn down the temperature without shrinking from ambitious policy objectives. Upright character has not been an electoral priority in the last decade, but Americans are still sensible to it; we still have some innate sense for integrity, decency, wisdom, and humility.
I have hope that the coming years will offer a renaissance in our reverence for higher things. We will realize that we have dealt with ourselves poorly by choosing, at all levels of government, demagogues who satisfy our rage and promise quick material prosperity over men and women of sincerity, competence, and character. This Faustian bargain is showing deeper cracks every day, and it must end. To quote Cox quoting Coolidge,
“We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the [Founders] who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed.”
I believe that America will soon say, as it has many times before, “enough is enough.” We will say it—not only to this or that policy or politician—to the entire notion that we can sell off the American birthright piecemeal for shallow promises and delude ourselves that we have become better off.
You owe us neither a candidacy nor the sacrifice of your family’s well-being. But if you hear the call to further virtuous leadership, even when victory is not assured, I urge you to give a presidential run your fullest consideration. You have a role to play in this new reawakening, Governor Cox. You have a rare ability to speak to your party and to all Americans without flattering their worst impulses. Turn the tide. Force the issues. Live out a life of character on the national stage. I hold a rugged, optimistic hope that heads will turn to you, eyes will look, and attitudes will soften. Enter the presidential race and do so with unshaken moral clarity. It’s time for us to heal.
Sincerely,
Tanner Stott