Phil Lyman asks U.S. Supreme Court to put him on Utah’s general election ballot

Write-in candidate for Utah governor Phil Lyman announced on Tuesday he had filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to toss out the state’s gubernatorial primary election and make himself the Republican Party nominee.
But the author of the 10-year-old bill that gives candidates a signature-gathering route to the primary ballot, known as SB 54, state Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, said by pursuing additional legal challenges Lyman is ignoring the fundamental premise of the state’s dual-path compromise to primary qualification: “It is the people’s ballot, not the party’s.”
Lyman argues that as the GOP convention winner he has standing to question SB 54. Lyman cites the state party constitution which says a candidate who receives more than 60% among state delegates at convention “shall proceed to the general election.”
Lyman won the party’s nomination at the convention in April, but Republican primary election voters chose Gov. Spencer Cox by about 9 percentage points in June. Cox and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, will appear on the general election ballot that was mailed out to voters last week. Lyman’s name does not appear on the ballot and must be written in as “Phil Lyman” along with his running mate’s name, “Natalie Clawson.”
“Even though Spencer Cox may argue that he has a right to a primary, I have a right to bypass that primary and go straight to the general election,” Lyman said in a video statement on Tuesday.
The Utah Supreme Court denied Lyman’s petition in August, ruling that the court had already rejected the argument that an internal party rule should trump state law in a previous case. Lyman, a certified public accountant, filed the petition himself without any attorneys placing their name on the court filing.
In Tuesday’s statement, Lyman said he would prefer to not have to engage in “expensive” and “divisive” legal battles but it is necessary to ensure “fair elections, honest elections, transparent elections.”
Lyman and Clawson did not respond to requests for comment.
Audrey Perry, a conservative political attorney with experience consulting for Congress and presidential campaigns on election law, said she would be “baffled” if the U.S. Supreme Court chose to pick up the case.
The nation’s highest court of appeals — like the judicial system as a whole — avoids deciding political decisions whenever possible, Perry said. The Supreme Court is unlikely to revisit a question decided by a state supreme court, especially with the general election two weeks away, according to Perry.
A candidate has a right to challenge SB 54, Perry said, but the window of when courts would feel comfortable weighing in has likely closed. The courts’ treatment of Lyman’s lawsuits thus far are consistent with Perry’s view of the system as capable of discerning “the more frivolous lawsuits in this area” and ensuring that elections are decided “by voters and not the court.”
“This election litigation is part of the legal process,” Perry said. “I think it probably will die down in (election) cycles to come because it hasn’t gotten a lot of traction in this cycle.”
Bramble said the state delegates authority for parties to conduct a primary qualification process, via the convention, but “the Republican Party has no constitutional right to put their candidates directly on the ballot.”
Each of Utah’s qualified political parties — parties with formal nomination processes — agreed in October of 2023 to abide by the primary qualification process outlined in SB 54, Bramble said. The lawmaker said there is nothing supporting Lyman’s belief that state law allows a single convention winner to bypass a primary challenge from a signature-gathering candidate.
“It is an erroneous, self-serving interpretation that does not reconcile with the very plain provisions of the statute for being a qualified party,” Bramble said.
Lyman’s criticisms of the electoral system fail to incorporate the “full truth,” according to Bramble. Lyman, who said he will refuse to accept the outcome of the primary election until he verifies the results himself, has recently alleged that a legislative auditors report says Cox did not qualify for the primary ballot with sufficient valid signatures.
But this statement fails to mention the auditors’ conclusion that finding a high error rate for signature verification after the election does not impact the nomination petition process and primary election, which complied with state code.
Bramble, age 70, said he would have run for reelection if he had had “more insight” into how this election cycle would go. According to Bramble, Lyman’s actions following the primary election could spell the end for the convention he is fighting to defend.
“I believe that what Phil Lyman (does) will eventually convince the legislature to go to a primary-only system,” Bramble said. “I don’t think necessarily it’ll be this session, but I suspect that there will be a challenge to remove the convention path completely.”
Our democratic republic depends on people looking for ways to improve “the efficacy of institutions,” according to State Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton. These types of conversations “happen all the time” among state lawmakers and are “important to our system of government,” McCay said. However, McCay said, Lyman’s approach to these discussions has strayed from the truth.
“Phil Lyman has consistently relied on inaccurate information and, if that’s any indicator for what he would be like as a governor, I’m even more grateful for the voters decision in June,” McCay said.
Lyman’s interpretation of SB 54 is in opposition to every legal opinion McCay has heard of the law, including his own reading, he said. McCay thinks the courts have handled Lyman’s multiple lawsuits correctly and doubts the Supreme Court will take up the case. McCay welcomes conversations about how to increase transparency and fairness in Utah elections but beneficial reforms to election law must be based on “a set of shared facts that are accurate,” McCay said.
In a statement posted on X Monday night, Lyman called Cox “an illegitimate candidate for Governor” and called on him to “follow the law and step down.” Lyman told supporters to ask their legislators to demand that general election ballots be reprinted in order to hold “a fair election.”