Will voters ask Evan who?
Republicans who can’t countenance voting for their party’s presidential nominee could well have an alternative when they march to the polls in November.
Will it be Mitt Romney, the GOP’s standard-bearer who tried to derail Donald Trump’s candidacy in the primary season? John Kasich, the popular and somewhat moderate Ohio governor who would have been a formidable GOP nominee had he won some states other than the Buckeye State during the primaries? Colin Powell, the independent-minded former secretary of state who served under George W. Bush?
No. Instead, the candidate will be … Evan McMullin.
Evan McMullin?
Who’s that?
According to reports, McMullin was due to file papers Monday to get on the ballot in as many states as possible in an effort to divert votes away from Trump. He is a 40-year-old, the chief policy director for the House Republican conference and a veteran of the CIA. At least before word of his candidacy started to circulate, he had 135 followers on Twitter – Trump has 10.7 million while Hillary Clinton has 8.2 million – has not been seen on any of the TV talkfests and gave a TEDx talk about genocide in London in April.
It’s safe to say McMullin’s motorcade is not going to be mobbed anytime soon. In fact, it seems more than likely McMullin will not have a motorcade at any point in his candidacy.
Perhaps the best he can hope for is to siphon votes away from Trump in Utah, McMullin’s home state and a place where many conservative Mormon voters have not cottoned to Trump’s divisiveness or his less-than-irreproachable personal conduct.
Expect McMullin to nab fewer votes than Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, who is leading the Green Party this time around.
It would have been better for Republicans dead set against voting for Trump if they had found a champion with a higher profile, and who could help point the way for the party once it emerges from the fever swamps of Trumpism.