Utah Republicans defend lawmaker's call to "protect your culture"
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Screengrab from Democrat Liban Mohamed's video announcing his campaign for Utah's 1st congressional district. Image via X.
Utah lawmakers are rushing to the defense of Rep. Trevor Lee (R-Layton), who was criticized for complaining about a Somali-American Democrat's congressional campaign: "This is what happens when past policies to incentivize foreigners and not protect your culture run unchecked."
The intrigue: The candidate, Liban Mohamed, was born in Utah.
Catch up quick: Mohamed, who is running for the open seat in Utah's newly created Congressional District 1, posted a video Jan. 5, saying his upbringing by Somali immigrant parents instilled service-oriented values.
- The Utah Democratic Party condemned a wave of racist responses, including a post from the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire that demeaned Somali people and praised white Mormon settlers as the rightful founders of the city.
- Lee shared that post, saying, "We need to roll back all benefits and past policies that don't put Utahns first,"a statement critics called racist.
The other side: In a statement to Axios, Lee said his original post expressed "concerns about policies that incentivize mass immigration without prioritizing assimilation into Utah's unique culture." Calls to assimilate have historically been used to marginalize some immigrant groups based only on ethnicity or national origin.
- "While Mr. Mohamed was born in Utah, his platform includes progressive policies that, in my view, do not align with the core values held by most Utahns or the constitutional framework our Founding Fathers established," Lee wrote.
- He quoted the preamble's claim "to secure the blessings of liberty 'to ourselves and our Posterity' — emphasizing that America's founding vision was to preserve these blessings for future generations of Americans who share in that heritage."
- Lee condemned policies that extend "benefits in ways that strain [public resources] or dilute our shared cultural identity."
Between the lines: Lee did not specify how Mohamed might dilute Utahns' shared cultural identity.
The latest: A constituent in Salt Lake County sent an email this week to all members of the Legislature and two KSL employees, asking them to censure Lee for his tweet, KSL.com reported.
- In a chain of reply-all messages, at least four Republicans defended Lee.
Case in point: "What are the words he used that showed blatant racism and bigotry? You are calling all of us to action, but I need to see some concrete evidence that Trevor severely crossed the line," Sen. Derrin Owens (R-Fountain Green) replied, per KSL.com
- Rep. Troy Shelley (R-Ephraim), Rep. Nicholeen Peck (R-Tooele) and Sen. John Johnson (R-North Ogden) also said they wouldn't censor Lee.
The big picture: The notion that immigrants are overwhelming white people's interests is part of a racist conspiracy theory known as "replacement theory."
"Replacement theory," or "great replacement," holds that immigrants and other people of color are "replacing" white and natural-born American citizens and will eventually control the country.