McMullin speaks about state of campaign at USU visit
Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin spoke at Utah State University Friday in the midst of recently-issued polls which show him trailing both major party candidates in Utah.
The visit was part of an effort to campaign to young people by speaking at universities in Utah in the week before the election.
McMullin, along with running mate Mindy Finn, addressed a near-full Taggart Student Center auditorium. The candidates called on listeners to join their “new conservative movement” – a return to the country’s foundational principles which includes “returning power to the people” and the states, and reforming national security and entitlements.
Finn and McMullin also addressed his arguably difficult but not impossible path to the White House.
Winning Utah’s electoral votes would put McMullin in a position to win the presidency as long as the race between both major party candidates remains close. If neither candidate can gain a majority in the electoral college, the House of Representatives will vote to decide the election.
As a former Republican congressional staffer, McMullin expressed optimism toward his chance of winning if the House decides the election. However, many of the representatives who would be called on to cast that vote – including those in Utah – have already pledged to vote for Donald Trump.
McMullin said he and Finn met with senior officials in Utah to invite them to support his campaign. Officials told him privately that they believe in what he stands for, but are too afraid to risk losing the votes of Trump supporters in their own reelections, McMullin said.
“They’re putting their own seats, their own power, their own interest ahead of our interest and the interest of the country,” McMullin said.
McMullin and Finn spent a large chunk of their allotted speaking time criticizing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
“I was waiting the whole time for him to actually say what he stood for,” said Sam Hendricks, a freshman double majoring in communications and law and constitutional studies. “I really wanted to know his platform and it took them forever.”
Once McMullin and Finn got around to talking about their campaign platform and answering questions, students said they were impressed with the message.
“I just wanted to know more about him,” said Brandi Bushman, a junior studying mathematics. “I was already leaning toward him because I think he has the best opportunity to block Hillary and Trump but, yeah, this convinced me.”
Freshman Kyle Andrus said this is the first presidential election he’ll be allowed to vote in, but he was upset about having to choose between Trump and Clinton.
“Now I see that there’s a third party candidate that actually does have the values I respect,” Andrus said. “It feels like my vote is actually going to count for something and not just go to a candidate that I don’t feel is going to represent America’s values.”
Though he may have convinced some students, others, like Hendricks, had already cast ballots for another presidential candidate.
The same is true across the state, where three recently-published polls show McMullin trailing Trump – and even Clinton – among Utah voters. A fourth, published by Y2 Analytics Friday, shows Trump leading McMullin by five percentage points.
One possible problem with polling data, McMullin said, is that it tends to under-represent the youth vote. Most younger people don’t have a landline, which is how polling organizations typically collect data.
Either way, McMullin said the closeness of the race for Utah’s electoral votes is a good sign for his campaign.
“It’s very hard to do what we’re doing; it’s very hard to achieve what we’re describing – the race has to be very close,” he said. “If it is a very close race on November 8, we can block both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump by winning Utah.”
@alyssarbrts