BREAKING: Utah Gov Spencer Cox endorses Trump after vowing not to vote for him just last week

On Friday, Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced that he would vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming election, and gave the Republican presidential nominee his endorsement. This decision is a stunning reversal from the Republican governor's previous statement, in which he said last week that he would not vote for Trump and write someone in instead. 

Gov. Cox told reporters that the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania resulted in a "sobering moment" for him that prompted a weekend reflection. He said it was a miracle that the former president survived and will vote for him in November, according to Deseret News. The Utah governor was one of the few GOP state governors who did not attend the Republican National Convention. 

"I spent the night distraught, worried about our nation and what we've become; who we are," Cox told reporters during a Friday press brief. 

The Republican governor, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump and did not support him in the previous two elections, spoke highly of Trump's acceptance speech on the final day of the RNC convention and welcomed his message. Cox said he noticed a change in Trump's tone since the shooting and said he is "willing" to give the former president "a try." 

"He's never said things like he's said in the past week," said Cox. "I don't know what it feels like to have a bullet graze your ear. I'm doing everything I can to help and support him. We'll still have lots of disagreements, I'm sure. I do think that I can help and be a voice when it comes to helping to unify our nation; when it comes to helping to lower the temperature." 

Gov. Cox published a letter he had written to Donald Trump on X on Friday, in which he wrote that Trump's reaction to the assassination attempt revealed a side that "most of us have not seen," saying that "it gave us tremendous hope for the future of our country."

The Utah governor was among one of the last Republican holdouts in endorsing Trump this election cycle, which resulted in many Utah Republicans referring to him as a RINO, short for "Republican in name only." Cox has been critical of Trump in the past and pushed DEI for the better part of his tenure as Utah’s governor, prior to signing a law against it in January.

The Utah governor has also been slammed by conservatives in the past for telling his pronouns to kids. Cox predicted during the news brief that Trump would defeat Biden in November and appears to be even more confident in this prediction in the wake of the assassination attempt.