Spencer Cox

Spencer James Cox is a politician and attorney. He served as Utah’s lieutenant governor with Governor Gary R. Herbert from October 16, 2013 to the end of Herbert’s last term in office (January 2021). Cox had been serving as a member of the Utah House of Representatives at the time that Governor Herbert selected him to step into the office. The Utah Senate unanimously confirmed him.

Cox announced that he would run for governor in 2020. He defeated former Utah governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. in the primary and was elected eighteenth governor of the State of Utah in the November election with 63 percent of the vote.

He embarked on his political career when he was appointed a city councilor of Fairview, Utah, and elected mayor the following year. In 2008, he was elected as a Sanpete County Commissioner. In 2012, he was elected to the Utah House of Representatives. Nine months into his service he was appointed lieutenant governor.

Cox was born on July 11, 1975, in Mount Pleasant, Utah. After graduating from North Sanpete High School, he attended Snow College and then served a full-time mission in Mexico for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After completing his mission, he graduated from Snow College, married his high school sweetheart, Abby, and obtained his bachelor’s degree in political science. He was accepted to Harvard Law School, but selected Washington and Lee University School of Law instead and holds a Juris Doctor degree. He then clerked for Federal District Judge Ted Stewart of the U. S. District Court (Utah) and then joined the Fabian and Clendenin law firm in Salt Lake City. He and his family returned to Fairview, Utah, and he became a farmer and vice president of CentraCom, a telecommunications company.

Cox and his wife, Abby, are the parents of four children and enjoy their rural life in Sanpete County.