Conservative Utah could pick neither Trump nor Clinton

016, 6:05 A.M.REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON

Conservative Utah could pick neither Trump nor Clinton

Evan Halper

Utah is very much in play – and not just for the major party nominees.

A new poll from the Deseret News shows the race in that longtime GOP stronghold is in a dead heat between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, with long-shot candidate Evan McMullin only a few points behind. McMullin is a graduate of Utah’s Brigham Young University.

The last time a third-party candidate won any electoral votes was in 1968, when George Wallace was on the ballot.

McMullin is polling at 22%, just four points behind both Trump and Clinton. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is supported by 14% of voters.

"A third-party candidate could win Utah as Utahns settle on one,"said Quin Monson, who helped conduct the poll.

Utah was seen as a heavy lift for Trump throughout the race, but his troubles there have intensified in recent days. A majority of voters polled say he should drop out. Gov. Gary Herbert and Reps. Jason Chaffetz and Chris Stewart were among those who have recently withdrawn their support of the GOP nominee.

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https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...PI_normal.jpegCarrie Dann
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Hoo boy. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865664606/Poll-Trump-falls-into-tie-with-Clinton-among-Utah-voters.html …
4:24 AM - 12 Oct 2016

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OCT. 12, 2016, 3:00 P.M.Final debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will focus on immigration, Supreme Court

http://www.trbimg.com/img-54ff3c09/t...ee/400/400x400Kurtis Lee

http://www.trbimg.com/img-57fb01c1/t...43/750/750x422(Scott Olson / Getty Images)

The Commission on Presidential Debates released topics on Wednesday for the third — and final — presidential debate next week.

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace will moderate the debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and has selected topics focused on debt and entitlements, immigration, the economy, the Supreme Court, foreign hot spots and the candidates’ fitness to be president.

The debate will be held Oct. 19 at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and will consist of six segments that will last 15 minutes.

The topics are subject to change as the topsy-turvy campaign inches closer to the Nov. 8 election, the commission said.
In Sunday's town-hall style debate in St. Louis, Trump and Clinton traded personal jabs in a debate that drew 66.5 million viewers, down from the record-setting 84 million viewers who watched their Sept. 26 debate.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politi...htmlstory.html

"Should McMullin win Utah, he would be the first independent candidate to win a state since George Wallace in 1968."

Yeah, Utah is working really hard to ensure the country thinks they're weird. It's like Trump asked a few months ago "what is happening in Utah?" Like is this unbelievable!!

Something bad got into their water seems to me.

Quote:

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Career - Evan McMullin

After graduating from Brigham Young University in 2001 he worked in Amman, Jordan, as a Volunteer Refugee Resettlement Officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.[10] He worked for the Central Intelligence Agency from 2001 until 2011, working overseas on counterterrorism and intelligence operations in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia[10] as an undercover operations officer with the National Clandestine Service.[11]

In 2011, McMullin began working for the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs.[12]

In 2013, McMullin became a senior adviser on national security issues for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for the 113th Congress.[2] McMullin became the chief policy director of the House Republican Conference in 2015 under Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.).[13] McMullin resigned from his position as chief policy director shortly before declaring his run for president.[2]

Starting in 2013, McMullin was an International Advisory Board Member for the Kennedy Center for International Studies at Brigham Young University.[14] McMullin is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[15]

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_McMullin

Presidential election: What if no one wins?

Gary Johnson May Win New Mexico, Which Would Keep both Trump and Clinton from Victory

Santa Monica Observed‎ - 8 hours ago

McMullin surging in Utah: Indy candidate's plan for Electoral College chaos

By Danny Jativa
Published October 21, 2016 FoxNews.com

Amid the raucous final phase of the presidential battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, independent candidate Evan McMullin has quietly crept into contention in the overlooked state of Utah – a development he hopes could lead to an Electoral College deadlock.

The former CIA operative is little-known elsewhere in the country and is only on the ballot in 11 states. But an apparent voter backlash in Mormon-heavy Utah against the two major-party candidates has fueled a surge for McMullin – a Mormon and Utah native – in state polls. A new Emerson College poll released Wednesday even had McMullin in first place, 4 points ahead of Trump, 31-27 percent, with Clinton at 24 percent.

“He captured the perfect storm in terms of timing,” said Jason Perry, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, citing the “disgust” state voters have toward the two major-party candidates.

One may ask of McMullin’s efforts – to what end?

The candidate is devoting his time and resources to Utah right now, but has a bigger strategy in mind. His presidential hopes rely on one extremely unlikely and unprecedented scenario: win enough electoral votes to hold Trump and Clinton below the 270 threshold needed to win the presidency outright. An Electoral College deadlock would throw the responsibility of electing a new president to the House of Representatives.

To do that, McMullin would need to not only pick up Utah’s six electoral votes but hope Trump wins virtually every key battleground such as Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Arizona and Virginia – states where, save for Ohio, Clinton leads, according to RealClearPolitics averages.

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See the Fox News 2016 battleground prediction map and make your own election projections.See Predictions Map →


His strategy relies on a Trump surge (that falls just short of victory) as well as a Utah win for himself. Even the latter would be historic; a McMullin win would mark the first time the state has broken from the Republican nominee since 1964.

McMullin is optimistic his popularity in Utah can also carry over in the final days of the race to other Mountain West states. McMullin says Utah is a state where principle matters over party and is an environment where a conservative alternative to the Republican nominee is viable.

“It’s not a Republican state. It’s a conservative state. That’s true for a lot of the Mountain West and I think our message resonates well there,” McMullin told FoxNews.com.

If he somehow were to pull this off – winning enough electoral votes in a close enough race that neither Clinton nor Trump has 270 -- the top three electoral vote-getting candidates would be presented to the House of Representatives, where each state delegation gets one vote. Though third-party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein may well win a higher share of the popular vote on Election Day, if McMullin is the only one among them to win electoral votes, his name would be sent to Congress along with Clinton and Trump in that scenario.

Perry described McMullin’s plan as “most improbable” but highlighted the importance of his performance in Utah.

“Neither one of the two presidential candidates have done well,” he explained. “He’s capturing the anxiety and disgust that a lot of people have in Utah for both Trump and Clinton.”

McMullin, former chief policy director for the House Republican Conference, is optimistic about his viability in this scenario.

“The formula is not rocket science,” McMullin said of the process.

“I am confident that my campaign would be able to compete in that kind of environment.”

In the case of an Electoral College stall, the vice president would be selected by a different process. The Senate would choose the veep from the two running mates with the most electoral votes – almost certainly Tim Kaine and Mike Pence – with each senator casting one vote.

To McMullin, this entire process goes beyond denying Clinton and Trump the presidency. He seeks to make a lasting impact on the conservative movement and make it, in his view, viable for generations to come.

“This opportunity is a new conservative movement that will address liberty and equality, attracting all different kinds of races and religions,” he said. “If we didn’t take a stand now, then we wouldn’t have the legitimacy to fundamentally change the conservative movement.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016...ege-chaos.html

• Electoral votes: 84 (428 with write-ins) ^{[original research?]}
• Ballot access: Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia.

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Evan McMullin presidential campaign, 2016 - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_McMullin_presidential_campaign,_2016Wikipedia

Utah Republican flip-flop: Rep. Jason Chaffetz says he'll vote Trump after all