Leadership of Moderate United Utah Party to Recommend That Party Back Independent Evan McMullin for U.S. Senate

The Salt Lake Tribune may have called Evan McMullin “a conservative candidate,” but the executive committee of the moderate United Utah Party voted unanimously to recommend that the party endorse McMullin, an independent, for the U.S. Senate. “We’re excited about putting Republicans and Democrats on notice,” UUP Chair Hillary Stirling said. “Evan McMullin and the United Utah Party are giving Utahns a real choice this time around.”

Also, prominent Utah Democrats publicly said they support McMullin. Former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams co-authored an op-ed in the Deseret News about why, and McAdams has fundraised for McMullin’s campaign, according to FOX 13. And Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson endorsed McMullin. Further, McAdams called on “principled Democrats, independents and Republicans” to support McMullin, and Wilson called on Democratic delegates to vote at the 2022 Utah Democratic Party State Convention to not have a candidate for the Senate this election cycle.

“We are at a critical juncture, and I am happy to be a part of a novel and inclusive coalition to elect Evan,” Wilson tweeted.

McMullin is challenging Sen. Mike Lee for the seat.

Lee became committed to former U.S. President Donald Trump, who leads the “Make America Great Again” movement. “Many Utahns remain averse to the MAGA wing of the Republican Party in general,” Benson reported. One behavior of MAGA adherents has been attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, hours after Trump encouraged them to march to the Capitol and protest the certification of President Joe Biden’s Nov. 2020 win over Trump, given that there would have been too little voter fraud, according to the Associated Press. According to an ABC/Ipsos poll, 72% of U.S. citizens think that those who attacked the Capitol were “threatening democracy,” ABC News reported. A Republican member of the House of Representatives, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, called the attack “a coup attempt,” according to The Hill.

“Lee took a full MAGA turn after Trump was elected. By the subsequent midterms, Lee was one of Trump’s staunchest allies in the Senate,” Samuel Benson wrote for POLITICO. Also, Lee “pledged his allegiance” to Trump’s reelection campaign, Benson reported. And Lee said that Trump — the same individual who mocked Latter-day Saint underwear — shared an objective of Book of Mormon prophet Captain Moroni. Three to 15 months after that, Lee’s LDS backing fell by eight percentage points, according to Deseret News/Hinckley Institute polls, Benson wrote.

Lee is also seen as an obstructionist. He was “the only senator to vote against bills speeding up (Actual Loss Sustained) insurance benefits and creating museums for Latinos and women. Most recently, Lee was the lone senator to oppose the formation of a national historic site at the location of a Japanese internment camp in Colorado,” Benson reported. Lee’s communications director said in an AP article that Lee was not opposed to the “specific” site, but of “any increase” of lands owned by the U.S. government.

The Lee campaign declined to talk with Benson for its story, he reported.

Lee also tweeted that the United States is “not a democracy.” The country is both a democracy and a republic, according to RepresentUs, a non-profit opposing governmental corruption that says it has members across the political spectrum. An issue with Lee’s argument is that it “provides a ready-made justification for tactics that amount to a kind of legal coup,” Vox said in an analysis.

UUP bylaws allow the party to endorse unaffiliated candidates for public office at their state nominating convention instead of nominating a candidate of their own, but the party’s state executive committee must first recommend that endorsement and ensure that the candidate is well-aligned with the values and platform of the United Utah Party. The executive committee made that recommendation at its monthly meeting last week, according to a press release.

“Evan McMullin represents the kind of practical, non-partisan approach that is the hallmark of the United Utah Party,” Stirling said. “His victory would go a long way toward breaking the stagnant two-party monopoly.”

“Our politics are broken,” McMullin said when announcing his campaign in October, according to The Hill. “It’s putting our country in danger. We need leaders who will unite rather than divide. Washington has left us so polarized that we’re failing to overcome major problems facing the nation and it has to change.”

According to McMullin’s campaign, he outraised Lee in his first-quarter fundraising, The Hill reported.

Washington Post columnists are among those taking note of McMullin’s campaign. Jennifer Rubin’s column was headlined “Look out, Mike Lee. An independent candidate just outraised you.” In his column, Perry Bacon Jr. wrote “We need more Democrats in the Senate. But more important, we need more democrats in the Senate — like Evan McMullin.”

As an independent candidate for U.S. president in 2016, McMullin got 21.5% of Utahns’ votes. McMullin’s membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is shared by 62% of Utahns, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Stirling said an official endorsement of McMullin will come if UUP delegates agree with the committee’s recommendation at its next state convention. The convention will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 16 at West High School at 241 North 300 West in Salt Lake City. All UUP members are automatic delegates to the state convention, and they will be able to attend in person or virtually.