On November 5, Phillip Lyman received 200,551 write-in votes for Governor of Utah. He is an outgoing Utah Republican state legislator, and he had lost the Republican gubernatorial primary in June 2024. His write-in total amount to 13.57% of the general election vote.

Late in the general election campaign, another individual, Richard Lyman, had also filed as a write-in candidate for Governor. Phil Lyman sued Richard Lyman in state court, alleging that Richard’s campaign was a dirty trick so that if a voter just wrote in “Lyman”, intending to vote for Phil Lyman, the vote wouldn’t count because with two Lymans running as write-ins, election officials wouldn’t know which candidate the voter intended to support. The case was Phillip Lyman v Richard Lyman, Salt Lake County, 240908314. Richard Lyman then withdrew his write-in candidacy so as to settle the lawsuit.

Phillip Lyman, as a legislator, represented southeast Utah and campaigned on taking more control of federal wilderness land.

No one has ever been elected Governor of any state via write-in votes, in the entire history of government-printed ballots.