Utah Republican wants GOP to nominate a governor for president

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Sunday he'd prefer that Republicans pick a governor to be their presidential nominee in 2024.

Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," the Utah Republican said he'd choose a governor "every day of the week" over someone from Congress.

"Yeah, I prefer governors. That's the easy call for me," Cox said in a joint interview with Gov. Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) with host Chuck Todd.

Cox said they were "all fantastic" after Todd threw out some names of Republican governors: New Hampshire's Chris Sununu, Florida's Ron DeSantis and South Dakota's Kristi Noem, as well as former Govs. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and Nikki Haley of South Carolina.

For his part, Murphy, who has been pushing for President Joe Biden to run for another term, did suggest that one Republican governor run for president: "Spencer Cox."

Cox, though, said he was running for reelection as governor of Utah.

Murphy and Cox both said they were proud of the cooperation between America's governors on a range of issues at last week's national conference, regardless of their political affiliation. Murphy is the current chair of the National Governors Association, Cox the vice chair.

"We passionately disagree and we're best friends," Cox said of his friendship with Murphy. Cox also said governors are more pragmatic because of their obligation to "get stuff done."

The last current or former governor to be nominated by the Republican Party for president was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 2012; Romney lost but is now a U.S. senator from Utah.

Democrats have not nominated a governor since Bill Clinton of Arkansas in 1992. He won that election and then was elected to a second term in the White House in 1996.