Book-Banning Utah Governor: Buy My Book!
Description: A book-banning GOP governor wants you to… buy his book??
Utah Governor Spencer Cox is touring national TV—from Jon Stewart to CNN—to sell his new book, Off Ramp: How to Be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt. He’s preaching political depolarization, but back home, his approval ratings have plunged 23 points since April.
Turns out, signing laws that remove fluoride from drinking water, replace Pride Month with “Fidelity Month,” and enact one of the country’s most extreme book-banning measures doesn't exactly make you a unifier.
So far, Utah has banned 44 titles from public schools statewide—including works by Toni Morrison, Stephen King, and Sarah J. Maas—with the state even requiring schools to destroy banned copies so they don't accidentally fall into the hands of an unsuspecting youth.
But the governor’s book-banning decision may now be coming back to haunt him as he tries to get people to buy his own book. When reporter Stephanie Mencimer went looking for an Off Ramp book signing in Utah, she discovered Cox wasn't doing any events in his own state in the first weeks after it came out.
Instead, Mencimer showed the governor’s peacemaking prose to legendary Salt Lake City bookseller Ken Sanders, whose shop proudly displays a “We Buy Banned Books” sign. His reaction to Cox’s dust-jacket pledge of harmony? “Oof. That ain't you, babe. You’re one of the dividers.”
Sanders isn't the only local rolling his eyes. When venerable Salt Lake City bookstore The King’s English announced a pre-order promotion for Cox's book, the backlash from furious customers was swift and brutal. Reddit blew up, and the store's co-owner noted the outrage was worse than when a bomb threat forced them to cancel a drag queen story time in 2023. The promotional offer was promptly canceled.
Critics point out the tremendous irony of Cox’s “peacemaker” tour: under Utah’s sweeping law—which he signed despite pleas from First Amendment advocates—it takes a challenge in just three conservative school districts to ban a book statewide.
Yet the governor who handed far-right activists the keys to purge school libraries is now selling a guide on how to get along.
Reporting by Stephanie Mencimer
Video by Peter Berger Close description
Utah Governor Spencer Cox is touring national TV—from Jon Stewart to CNN—to sell his new book, Off Ramp: How to Be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt. He’s preaching political depolarization, but back home, his approval ratings have plunged 23 points since April.
Turns out, signing laws that remove fluoride from drinking water, replace Pride Month with “Fidelity Month,” and enact one of the country’s most extreme book-banning measures doesn't exactly make you a unifier.
So far, Utah has banned 44 titles from public schools statewide—including works by Toni Morrison, Stephen King, and Sarah J. Maas—with the state even requiring schools to destroy banned copies so they don't accidentally fall into the hands of an unsuspecting youth.
But the governor’s book-banning decision may now be coming back to haunt him as he tries to get people to buy his own book. When reporter Stephanie Mencimer went looking for an Off Ramp book signing in Utah, she discovered Cox wasn't doing any events in his own state in the first weeks after it came out.
Instead, Mencimer showed the governor’s peacemaking prose to legendary Salt Lake City bookseller Ken Sanders, whose shop proudly displays a “We Buy Banned Books” sign. His reaction to Cox’s dust-jacket pledge of harmony? “Oof. That ain't you, babe. You’re one of the dividers.”
Sanders isn't the only local rolling his eyes. When venerable Salt Lake City bookstore The King’s English announced a pre-order promotion for Cox's book, the backlash from furious customers was swift and brutal. Reddit blew up, and the store's co-owner noted the outrage was worse than when a bomb threat forced them to cancel a drag queen story time in 2023. The promotional offer was promptly canceled.
Critics point out the tremendous irony of Cox’s “peacemaker” tour: under Utah’s sweeping law—which he signed despite pleas from First Amendment advocates—it takes a challenge in just three conservative school districts to ban a book statewide.
Yet the governor who handed far-right activists the keys to purge school libraries is now selling a guide on how to get along.
Reporting by Stephanie Mencimer
Video by Peter Berger Close description