Utah Democrats turn to Evan McMullin as presidential hopeful

AP - Utah Democrats pulling hard to defeat Republican Sen. Mike Lee took the unusual step of spurning a party hopeful to get behind an independent, former presidential candidate Evan McMullin.

The Democrats were swayed by calls from prominent members who said McMullin, a conservative who took a major share of the vote in Utah in 2016, was the best chance to beat Lee in the deeply conservative state that hasn't elected a Democratic U.S. senator for more than 50 years.

I am committed to that. I will maintain my independence, according to McMullin, a Democratic delegates.

From the archives of October 2016 White House hopeful Evan McMullin on Donald Trump : I know a dictator when I see one Lee facing two GOP challengers at his party s nominating conventions. He won over 70% of the vote in front of the right-leaning crowd. The candidates who used the state's other path to the ballot and gathered signatures will still appear on the primary ballot.

The former state lawmaker Becky Edwards won about 12% of the vote on Saturday. The former gubernatorial deputy chief of staff Ally Isom came in third.

Lee's relationship with former President Donald Trump has been front and center since CNN reported on text messages showing that the senator was involved in early attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, though Lee later pivoted and voted to confirm the election results after no widespread fraud emerged.

Lee said he did his job, and he made a statement. I did my job the way I promised myself that I would go about doing my job. Also see: Trump's Jan. 6 White House phone records show a nearly 8 hour gap.

McMullin is a former CIA officer who ran for president in 2016 and made some inroads in the deeply conservative state where many GOP voters had reservations about Donald Trump. Lee himself said he had cast a protest vote for McMullin, though he later became a staunch Trump ally, and the former president has endorsed him.

In February of 2019, Lindsey Graham said he voted for McMullin, not Trump, in the 2016 presidential election.

A Democrat ran for the nomination, Kael Weston, but the pro-McMullin camp convinced party delegates to nominate no one, clearing the path for the independent as much as possible. Among his supporters were prominent Democrats, like former congressman Ben McAdams.

I know Evan. I trust Evan, as the best possible chance to unseat Lee in a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats 4 to 1 during the contentious debate, framing McMullin as the best possible chance to defeat Lee.

Carson Jorgensen, chairman of the Republican Party, took aim at the decision of the Democrats, arguing that it showed a weakness in the other party's platform. Now it's time to shine, as Republicans, he said. I don't know if everyone understands the gravity of this. On Saturday, moderate Republican Congressman John Curtis was forced into a primary, coming in second in a field that included a challenger who brought in longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone. The effort didn't carry Jason Preston beyond the first round of voting.