Utah's Evan McMullin upends two-party fight for US Senate
PROVO, Utah (AP) — Campaigning at a park filled with 19th-century pushcarts on a state holiday honoring Utah's early Mormon pioneers, Evan McMullin glad hands voters as he strolls past potato sack races and beverage stands selling cold, sugary drinks under a sweltering sun.
The independent U.S. Senate candidate who won the official backing of Utah's Democratic Party in this year's midterm election harks back to Utah's pioneer days as he explains his quest to unseat two-term Republican Sen. Mike Lee.
“When our ancestors arrived, the only way to make this harsh but very beautiful place work in order for them to survive and thrive was to work together," said McMullin, who casts his candidacy as an opportunity to ”unite Americans across party lines to protect democracy.”
To defeat Lee, McMullin's idealized call for cross-party unity will have to do a lot more than just win over Democrats and a few disgruntled conservatives. Republicans have won every U.S. Senate race in Utah since 1976.
It’s been six years since McMullin, a soft-spoken former Republican congressional staffer, emerged as a third-party candidate as a conservative alternative to Donald Trump. McMullin won 21.5% of the vote in Utah in 2016, the most of any third-party candidate in the country. Trump still breezed to victory.
McMullin warned in a New York Times op-ed after Trump's election that he was an authoritarian who “undermined critical democratic norms including peaceful debate and transitions of power.” This year, McMullin is hitting that message even harder, denouncing his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents.
McMullin has cast both Trump and Lee as threats to democracy, noting text messages obtained by the Jan. 6...