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By Katherine Fung
Senior Writer
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Former President Donald Trump on Friday received a surprise endorsement in yet another show of GOP unity.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox threw his support behind the former president a day after Trump formally accepted the Republican Party's nomination in Milwaukee on Thursday night.
"I believe in our better angels, Mr. President, and I believe you are capable of being that kind of leader for this troubled nation," Cox wrote to Trump in a letter. "It is a huge burden to be placed on any person, but I want you to know that I pledge my support and I know that millions of others will rally to that kind of leadership."
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The endorsement is a reversal for Cox, who just last week said he would not be voting for Trump.
"I'm not going to vote for either presidential candidate this year. I'll write somebody in as I've done in the past," Cox, who has voted for a Republican at the top of the ticket since 2012, told CNN on July 11. "But I am supportive. I do want Donald Trump to succeed. I want my party to win."
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment.
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Two days after Cox said he would not back Trump in November's election, the former president survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Cox cited Trump's response to the attack as part of the reason that he changed his mind about supporting him.
"My wife Abby and I watched in disbelief as we saw the images of the attack on your life. The sound of the gunshots. Your hand to your face. The Secret Service agents surrounding you. And then you stood again and raised your fist to the air. The flag waving int he background. In that moment you represented the best of America at one of our very worst times," Cox wrote. "Bloodied but now bowed. Courage—literally—under fire."
"As important as that immediate reaction was, I was even more impressed with the statements that you and Melania made afterwards," the governor continued. "There was strength in those words, and also humility. It was a side of you most of us have not seen, and it gave so many of us tremendous hope for the future of our country."
The Republican Party has sought to use this moment in time to reunite the party. The GOP used its convention to show that Trump was able to shore up support from even his fiercest of conservative rivals and to position the former president as a doting grandfather, all while the Democratic Party slipped further into disarray about whether President Joe Biden should remain the nominee.
On Friday, Cox urged Trump to embrace bipartisanship and to treat his opponent with "basic human dignity" as the election nears, arguing that it would be his chance to "do something that people have said is impossible."
"By treating President Biden with basic human dignity and respect and by emphasizing unity rather than hate, you will win this election by a historic margin and become one of our nation's most transformational leaders," Cox told Trump. "By extending an olive branch to voters who are open to persuasion and ignoring the extremists, you can solidify a legacy as one of the most important presidents in our nation's 250-year history."
"You can make your success, in leading our country to a new era of peace, unity, and prosperity, the greatest way to silence your critics," he said.
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