The Salt Lake Tribune reports Axson secured a narrow, 125-vote victory over former GOP gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman during the party’s 2025 Organizing Conventions Saturday.
Delegates cast 1,340 votes for Axson and 1,125 for Lyman – for a roughly 52% to 48% split.
Trump endorsed Axson on his Truth Social platform May 8.
“Robert Axson has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election as Chairman of the Utah Republican Party — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!" the post said.
Axson has led the state party since 2023. He was also endorsed by U.S. Sen. Mike Lee.
Central to the race was a long-running split within the party over how candidates for primary elections get on the ballot. That divide deepened in 2024 when Lyman lost a bid to unseat Gov. Spencer Cox.
Lyman earned his spot by besting Cox with a 2-to-1 margin among convention delegates. But Cox, who gathered signatures to get on the ballot, later beat him in the primary by nearly 40,000 votes.
Lyman then challenged the results, alleging election fraud, launching a write-in campaign for governor and asking the Utah Supreme Court to toss out the primary results and certify Lyman as GOP’s nominee. Justices declined.
In speeches before the vote Saturday, both Axson and Lyman said they want the signature gathering pathway to the ballot eliminated.
Lyman believes the party can do that by refusing to recognize the legitimacy of candidates who use the signature method. Axson said he believes doing so would violate SB54, Utah’s signature gathering law. Instead, he said he would lobby the Utah Legislature to repeal it.
Also Saturday, former Summit County GOP Chair Melanie Monestere was elected to serve as the statewide party’s vice chair; Stafford Palmieri Sievert of Morgan County was reelected as secretary, and Chris Null, Salt Lake County’s current Republican Party chair, was elected treasurer.