Utah bookstore cancels promotion for governor's book on peacemaking after online backlash

by · KSL.com

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • The King's English bookstore canceled a promotion for Gov. Spencer Cox's book on political peacemaking on Saturday.
  • The book, releasing Sept. 8, aims to promote political dialogue and reduce polarization.
  • The store will still sell the book when it is released.

SALT LAKE CITY — A local Utah bookstore canceled an exclusive partnership with Republican Gov. Spencer Cox to promote his upcoming book on political peacemaking after receiving backlash from its Salt Lake City customers.

Cox had announced the partnership on Thursday. The deal would provide signed copies of "Off Ramp: How to be a Peacemaker in an Age of Contempt," if they were preordered through The King's English Bookshop.

On Saturday, the deal was no more. The store's owners, Anne Holman and Calvin Crosby, posted a video statement on social media saying they had heard, and were listening to, the "impassioned responses" of their customers.

Over the previous two days, online comments on platforms like Threads and Bluesky, which are predominantly used by self-identified Democrats, railed against the bookstore for the deal and suggested that it had lost their business.

Many of the comments criticized Cox for his support of President Donald Trump, a massive new energy development and state policies that allow public schools to restrict books in school libraries with age-inappropriate content.

"We understand that you were disappointed," Crosby said. "And, in a matter of strange timing, we saw the governor's monthly press conference yesterday and were, well, frankly also disappointed."

Holman and Crosby said they agreed to the deal because Cox had led pro-literacy initiatives. During his monthly press conference on Thursday, Cox spoke in favor of judicial accountability, AI data centers and political moderation.

The two said they carry books by authors with views they don't align with, but they "don't have to promote them." While the King's English will not participate in the preorder program, it will still sell the book when it is released.

What is Gov. Cox's book about?

"Off Ramp," Cox's first book, has been billed as a guide to depolarizing political dialogue, aligning with his well-known slogan of "disagree better," which invites those with different partisan leanings to interact with respect.

Following the King's English announcement, Utahns from across different wings of the GOP reacted with surprise that politically motivated outrage would target a book about turning down the temperature of U.S. politics.

Utah chief deputy attorney general Dan Burton was one of many prominent conservatives who took to X to criticize The King's English for its decision to back away from promoting a book about "improving civil discourse."

"An online mob — the same people demanding sexually explicit and violent books in public school libraries — pressures the store to cancel. The store caves and bans the governor," Burton said. "They don't believe in free expression. They believe in their expression."

The Sept. 8 release of Cox's book comes just before the one-year anniversary of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah. The apparently politically motivated murder thrust Cox into the national spotlight.

Cox received praise from around the country, across the aisle, and even from Trump, for his remarks. Cox called on Americans to unify, to ignore "conflict engineers" and for young people to create a better political future.

During a March press conference, Cox acknowledged his book won't solve polarization. But he said it could add momentum to a shift he believes is already underway as Americans become tired of political division.

"I've been surprisingly hopeful about what's changing in our country. I feel like that pendulum is starting to swing back a little bit," Cox said. "They're just exhausted from what's happening with politics."

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Brigham Tomco

Brigham Tomco covers Utah’s congressional delegation for the national politics team at the Deseret News. A Utah native, Brigham studied journalism and philosophy at Brigham Young University. He enjoys podcasts, historical nonfiction and going to the park with his wife and two boys.