In the lead-up to the June 23 Republican primary and his race against District 2 incumbent Celeste Maloy, Lyman met with the Daily Herald to discuss his campaign. The Daily Herald also interviewed Maloy.

Lyman has spent several years in Utah politics, previously serving as a San Juan County commissioner and a member of the state House. In 2024, he ran for governor, where he won the state convention but lost in the Republican Primary and unsuccessfully contested the results. 

The Blanding resident said he chose to run for Congress to continue a quest to “find why the government makes such bad policy that hurts people they’re supposed to serve.” He described himself as a candidate outside the current political establishment. 

“My politics are not abstract, they’re very pragmatic, they’re very much in favor of liberty and autonomy, and I believe in personhood, parenthood, statehood, and that those things need to be respected,” Lyman said. “And we have a government that is always trying to encroach on those things. We’ve got to have someone who pushes back, not someone who jumps on board with it.” 

District 3

The reshaped District 3 encompasses more than 50% of Utah and covers some of its most valued geography, including all five national parks. It also covers much of Utah County from Orem and Provo down to Payson. 

Asked how he will balance the interests of the rural and urban areas, Lyman said he doesn’t see much of an ideological divide between the two. 

“I ran for governor a couple of years ago, and I got that question quite a bit, and I always say, ‘I’m from Utah, and everything that people love about Utah are the same things I love about Utah, whether they live in Park City or Cedar City,'” Lyman said. “The people really love the mountains and the outdoors and the streams and the fishing and the hunting.” 

Lyman, who said his mother was born and raised in Utah County and that he has several relatives there, said the concerns he hears from Utah County and rural Utah residents are similar. 

“Most places I go, they’re concerned about water, they’re concerned about development that’s going out of control, high-density housing, inflation,” he said. 

When it comes to local issues – such as water, land and development — Lyman said his role in Congress would be to support state jurisdiction and encourage state legislatures to take their jurisdictional place. 

“If the state legislature is willing to yield ground, there’s always a federal agency or Congress that’s just willing to step right in and take it over, whether it’s education or health care or energy,” he said. “And in Utah, I don’t think Utah has done as good a job as it should in defending the rights of the people.”

Lyman said Washington, D.C., is driven by administrative state lobbyists and corporate interests, and that federal overreach has impacted the state of Utah.

He characterized his opponent, Maloy, as being a part of what he calls the administrative state. He cited PAC money she received from Defending Our Values, a committee run by former Rep. Chris Stewart that is funded by Public First, a nonprofit which the Deseret News reported received a $20 million donation from an AI developer. 

“I think the biggest thing, if I compare myself to Celeste, is she’s an attorney, she’s been a staffer in Washington, D.C. … she understands the administrative mindset and and functions very well in that in that space,” Lyman said. “She understands what I call it a beltway mentality in Washington, DC. In fact, I think she has a beltway mentality. She is part of the machine that I’ve been fighting against for so long.”

Public lands

Lyman is concerned with public lands rights within the state of Utah. 

He said issues such as the Bureau of Land Management proposing to further reduce grazing permits are impacting careers.  

“You’ve got people that their livelihoods are literally on the line, and they’re looking, saying, ‘My kids aren’t going to continue in the business because it’s not viable.'” 

He said beneficiaries of federal land should be the people, and that he would fight as a congressman to advocate their rights and the state’s jurisdiction of the land. 

“We have a government that is always trying to encroach on those things. We’ve got to have someone who pushes back, not someone who jumps on board with it,” Lyman said. 

He also said he would push to protect water rights.

Legal battles 

Lyman’s campaign comes on the heels of a number of lawsuits he filed contesting the results of the 2024 gubernatorial election.

Lyman won the State Republican Convention with 67.5% of the vote, before falling in the primary to Gov. Spencer Cox, who qualified for the primary via signature gathering.

In response, Lyman filed a petition to the Utah Supreme Court, requesting the primary election be annulled, that the Utah Republican Party certify the convention winners as the general election nominee and that Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and Cox be removed from office for malfeasance. 

Lyman’s additional suits regarding signature gathering or voting records were dismissed or declined by the court. He said he still questions the state’s election integrity.

He said the election process in Utah is a “closed-loop system” where the Lt. Governor’s office controls all aspects of the process. He claimed there is a lack of transparency in the election system that incentivizes people to interfere with the race. 

“I’ve always said, to ask if there’s cheating is the wrong question,” he said. “The right question is, could there be cheating, and what controls are in place to prevent it? And in Utah, the answer is, there really are no controls in place.”

Lyman also referenced a suit the Justice Department filed against multiple states this year, including Utah, alleging they failed to produce their full voter registration lists upon request. 

“One of the main motivators in running for Congress was maybe I could get the DOJ to actually take a look at what was happening here in Utah, because we have some serious problems,” Lyman said.