Third party candidate Evan McMullin gains popularity in Utah

By Michael Vinci 10/21/16
Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are the two most well known of the third party candidates for the 2016 Presidential election. A third candidate, Evan McMullin, has recently witnessed a surge in popularity in his home state of Utah. The state has always been a bastion for conservative Republicans.

McMullin’s campaign is focused on gathering votes from conservatives who are disaffected with Trump’s boorish behavior. McMullin’s campaign focuses on what he  calls “a conservatism that is compassionate and wants to help people and understands people’s struggles and help them through these struggles.”

The people of his home state have rallied behind him as he has seen an unprecedented surge in recent polls. He is closing in on both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The implications of McMullin winning Utah would represent Utah’s first non-republican presidential vote since 1964.

An Emerson College Polling Society survey reflected his popularity. McMullin was shown as having 31 percent of support, while Trump had 27 and Clinton 24. In a bold statement McMullin claimed “I am the only true Republican in this race”. The large Mormon population of Utah is the source of the bulk of his popularity. His running mate, Republican campaign strategist Nancy Finn, has helped attract the vote of young Mormons in the state.

McMullin was raised as a Mormon and even went on a mission to Brazil. From there he attended the Mormon Brigham Young University, where he earned a degree in international law and diplomacy. He went on to work with counter-terrorism in the CIA for ten years before earning a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School of Business.