The United Utah Party has issued the following statement:
The United Utah Party would like to congratulate Sean Reyes upon his reelection to the office of Utah Attorney General. Unfortunately, as his first act since his victory, Mr. Reyes has chosen to leave the state to join in a challenge to the integrity of the electoral process.
After a particularly brutal campaign season, the last thing this country needs is more division. We believe it is time to come together as a nation and not sow more discord. Allegations of voter fraud have not been proven, and even prominent Republicans such as Senator Mitt Romney have congratulated the new president-elect and urged the nation to move on.
Yet Mr. Reyes has chosen to join the effort to question the integrity of the election process and put that ahead of his official responsibilities. It is one thing if he did this as a private citizen. But he is inappropriately leveraging the reputation of the state of Utah to lend credibility to President Trump’s unwillingness to recognize the reality of his defeat.
Mr. Reyes’ claim that he is taking a leave of absence from his office is a charade. It is unbecoming of him to leave the state to pursue other legal activities in the wake of his re-election. He should be devoting his full time not to being a partisan operative, but to serving the people in his role as attorney general.
Mr. Reyes’ actions prompt us to renew our call for an amendment to the Utah Constitution making the office of Utah Attorney General non-partisan. This should be an office to be elected by the voters in a non-partisan election rather than through a political party nomination process. We do not need or deserve an Attorney General who puts his party before the state of Utah.
