Utah’s political leadership is regrouping after three failed attempts to wrest public lands from the federal government this year.

"He’s not wrong about the concept, he was just not wise in the approach he used,” Republican Thom Tillis said of the Senate Energy chair.

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Sen. Mike Lee’s public lands sell-off rider, meant to be part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” is officially dead. But using history as our guide, Utah’s political leadership will likely be back with a new strategy and some new legal maneuver to gain control over at least some of its 35 million acres owned and managed by the federal government.

Neither Lee's office nor Utah GOP chair Robert Axson responded to Axios' requests for comment Tuesday morning. What they're saying: "This is not normal, regular civic banter, especially for man of his stature in the office that he holds," said Mike Madrid ...