Republican Utah Governor Spencer Cox, who has called conservative leader Charlie Kirk's killing a "political assassination," will come to South Bend next week for a University of Notre Dame conference promoting bipartisanship.
At a press conference Wednesday after an apparent rooftop sniper shot Kirk at Utah Valley University, Cox said, "Nothing I say can unite us as a country…"
But Notre Dame officials say Cox still plans to visit campus next Friday, Sept. 19. He and Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will have a public discussion called "Pragmatism Over Polarization: A Conversation with U.S. Governors."
Event organizer Joel Day, managing director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative, says no security changes are planned for the event.
"We recognize that we are in an even more heightened conversation," Day says. "It's more poignant for us to really hone in on how to lower the temperature of our rhetoric."
Cox has built a reputation for reaching across the aisle as chair of the National Governors Association, while Lujan Grisham heads the Western Governors Association.
"They work together across partisan lines and I think our country needs that now more than ever."
Their talk is scheduled from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the Duncan Student Center's Dahnke Ballroom. It's open to the public but it also will be livesteamed if there isn't enough seating.
Copyright 2025 WVPE 88.1 Elkhart/South Bend
