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TWO MONTHS AFTER he jumped into the US presidential race as a political unknown on the fringe, independent candidate Evan McMullin is surging in the polls in Utah and drawing large crowds at rallies as he becomes the conduit for conservative voters fed up with Republican Donald Trump’s crudeness and antics.
The Republican stronghold of Utah is suddenly a toss-up state amid widespread rejection of Trump, with polls showing McMullin closing in on the Republican nominee and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
It means that Utah may do what seemed unthinkable: Elect a non-Republican presidential candidate for the first time since 1964.
Though McMullin is only on the ballot in 11 states, there’s even talk of the 40-year-old becoming president in a wild, exceedingly unlikely scenario in which neither Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton gets enough electoral votes and Congress is left to decide.
McMullin’s stunning ascent into relevancy has everyone asking: Who is this guy?
Born in Provo, Utah — the heartland of Mormon country — McMullin spent his childhood in a rural area of Washington out of Seattle. He did a two-year Mormon mission in Brazil and then returned to Utah to earn a degree in international law and diplomacy at the Mormon church-owned Brigham Young University.
He spent 11 years in the CIA doing counter terrorism work before leaving the agency to get a master’s in business administration from the Wharton School of Business and have a brief stint in investment banking. He later became a national security adviser for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
He was working as the chief policy director for US House Republicans as he watched with amazement as Trump won the GOP nomination and no other conservative jumped in the race. By late summer, he realised he would have to run to give conservative voters an alternative to Trump and Clinton. Despite knowing he would endure ridicule and questions about his motives, McMullin went for it.
McMullin is hopeful he can win Utah and make a dent in neighboring Idaho and Wyoming. But even if he doesn’t win any state, he said he’s already accomplished part of what he set out to do.
“We believe it’s time in this country for a new conservative movement,” McMullin said. “That would be a conservative movement that’s welcoming to people of all races and religions… It’s a conservatism that is compassionate and wants to help people and understands people’s struggles and help them through these struggles.”
‘An ambitious young man’
Damon Cann was a roommate of McMullin’s for three months in 1999 when they lived together at BYU housing in Virginia. Cann, now a Utah State University political scientist, remembers McMullin being an ambitious young man with a high motor who was very excited about starting his career in the CIA, taking very seriously all the agency rules.
He even insisted on reporting an encounter with foreigners from across the hall who gave them cookies, Cann remembers.
Handicapping this year’s race, Cann said McMullin has seized the opportunity created by the unpopularity of Trump and Clinton by persuading voters he’s a better option than Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, whose policies don’t quite jibe with Utah’s culture. That includes being pro-choice on abortion and accepting the legalisation of gay marriage.
His choice of a woman as his running mate, Republican campaign strategist Mindy Finn, is just one part of his campaign that has endeared him to Utah voters, especially young Mormons, Cann said.
“People tend to have a higher level of social trust for people who are in the same group,” Cann said.
McMullin downplays the role his religion is playing in his ascent.
“It’s about principles. They’re not only Mormon principles, they are the principles of millions of Americans,” McMullin said.
I am the only true conservative in this race.
Matthew Burbank, an associate professor of political science at the University of Utah, predicts Trump will narrowly win the state, making McMullin mainly an interesting historical footnote similar to Ross Perot’s 1992 showing in Utah when he finished second to George HW Bush but ahead of Bill Clinton.
But he’s among those impressed by how well McMullin has maneuvered this year’s bizarre political landscape to earn widespread attention. McMullin’s strategy to stake out general, conservative ideas seems to be working because most voters aren’t looking for detailed plans about what he would do as president because they know that’s not realistic.
“He’s primarily a symbolic conservative,” Burbank said.
As long as he holds that position, some Utah voters will look at that and say, ‘I’d rather vote for him.’
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Is the RCC making any contribution to this compensation fund? They were the employer and they received money both from the State and from the businesses which they carried work out for. Surely, there must be some liability there. Perhaps, a transfer of RCC school property to the State, if they are stuck for ready cash?
The RCC have not paid one single euro into the fund nor have any of the Orders of Nuns.
Is it me or does the compensation sound small. They worked for years as slave labour in these laundries.
Whether intending to or not you’ve made their claim only about money.
@Ross
I’ve seen a few of these ladies on TV and they have stated that they are looking for an official apology.
Read my comment fully. It was directed at the first comment who said that the money was too low.
Maybe that’s the your mind works so you picked it up like that. If they looked for or didn’t that doesn’t change the fact they should be fairly compensated.
Why aren’t the RCC paying the full amount?? Typical, the Irish government bend over and take it up the ar se every time from this corrupt and perverted cult!! Time to separate church and state for once and for all!!
It’s a good start, but i think they want vindication as well.
It seems small change-maybe there waiting for these people to disappear off the planet for good,to reduce that €12 million compo figure!…
The maths on that don’t add up and there is nothing wrong with my calculator.If you take 357 and even assume they were at top of scale. They got lump sum of 65,000 multiply that by 357 and you get 23,205,000 that’s not 12.8 million
Also when she states CERTAIN MEDICAL SCHEMES I would like to know exactly what schemes she is referring to.
have your say