Opinion | Utah’s Evan McMullin is showing how to fight rabid Trump sycophancy

Utah’s Democrats are cooperating with and supporting McMullin rather than running their own candidate (who wouldn’t stand a chance in the deep red state). In a state that went by 20 points for Trump, McMullin’s campaign is a steep climb. Nonetheless, Lee remains an unpopular figure who has skewered McMullin to the point of being useless to his state.

A Deseret News poll released in July found that Lee has a surprisingly small lead, 41 percent to 36 percent. An internal Impact Research McMullin campaign poll memo, exclusively made available to me, reports: “Among the likely voters in Utah, McMullin gets 47% of the vote, while Lee gets 46% and only 7% of the vote remains undecided .” Additionally, McMullin pollsters noted that “Lee’s job rating is down a net 11 points since June and is now underwater by a 3-point margin (47% positive / 50% negative).” Considering others smaller candidates in the race, McMullin lands at 44 percent and Lee at 45 percent.

In a speech prepared Wednesday in Salt Lake City, McMullin, a formerly CIA Middle East officer, noted that the threat of foreign authoritarian regimes is not the only danger we face. “Here at home, America has reached another crossroads of its own. And now a major decision requires our urgent attention,” he said. “The choice is between the path of shared liberty or the false promise of authoritarianism.” He urged voters to choose between “the path to a more perfect union defined by our founding truths or [one] to succumb to those who – out of cynical self-interest – are now promoting a dark alternative to democracy in America.” And he warned of “the purveyors of chaos, conspiracy and division who seek to dismantle our system of self-government in order to seize uncontrolled power for themselves to attain himself”.

McMullin then addressed his opponent, pointing out that Lee, like so many other hypocritical right-wingers, once fought and denounced Trump only to become “a loyal sycophant for the rising authoritarian who has broken his oath to the Constitution.” to serve the unconstitutional ambitions of this one man.” McMullin noted that Lee went so far as to compare Trump to “the revered Book of Mormon leader, Captain Moroni, a most shameful and false comparison.”

McMullin also traced a series of emails after the 2020 election between Lee and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that revealed Lee’s involvement in the attempted coup. As McMullin put it, although “Mike Lee lied about his involvement, we now know … that Mike Lee was at the center of the conspiracy to overthrow our republic – one of our nation’s most egregious betrayals.” Just two days before the violent uprising ” Mike Lee informed Trump’s team that he spends ’14 hours a day’ recruiting bogus voters and subverting the will of the people.” McMullin argued that Lee “not only supported efforts to end American democracy, he leveraged them his power as United States Senator to help plan, coordinate, and execute the plot. By his own admission, he worked overtime to pull it off.”

McMullin stated that Lee “betrayed” Utah voters and was “not a constitutional conservative.” McMullin added, “For him, the Constitution is a theatrical prop, something he can pull out of his suit pocket and wave in the air when it suits politically, but quickly gives up when it serves his personal ambitions.” The Utah independent sounds much like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who may be considering backing a conservative running against a Trump collaborator.

McMullin is banking on a generous message of unity in defending democracy and finding “common sense” solutions to problems. That he is competitive in a state like Utah is a striking sign that traditional conservatives — after weeks of watching the Jan. 6 House Special Committee hearings and hearing of Trump’s apparent theft of top-secret documents — may be growing weary of the anti-Democrats Vitriol. If McMullin pulls off a shocking upset or even comes close to beating an incumbent Republican in Utah, his campaign will provide a way forward for a coalition to replace MAGA forces with principled patriotic Republicans.