While this all was a theory (that proved to be horribly inaccurate), both of the major nominees never tried to give any concessions to this 3rd party candidate, even in the small state of Utah. Neither Trump, nor Hillary wanted to lose even these 6 electoral votes in a race that seemed to be so close, electoral college-wise.
If you remember it, late in the August of this year, some 2 months before the general election day in the US, the presidential race saw a new contender enter the place – Evan McMullin.
This former CIA operative, born and raised as Utah’s Mormon, hoped to clinch his home state and thus deny both major party contenders their electoral college majority.
So while Evan McMullin did secure some kind of a polling lead over Donald Trump in Utah, according to at least a few opinion polls in October, still Trump tried to campaign his way through Utah all Fall long.
The only little problem with Donald Trump’s easy victory over this deeply red state (which has voted for Republicans since 1964 – which totals to 52 years in a row), was the faith of the locals.
The Mormons, who make up more than a half of the state’s citizens, have been (or seemed to be, prior to November the 8th) staunchly opposing all the bigotry that Donald J. Trump has ever uttered while on his one and a half years long campaign trail…
Even the Mormon standard bearer, the previous Republican nominee for President in 2012, Mitt Romney has voiced his concerns over Trump’s divisive rhetorics and authoritarian tendencies, numerous times throughout 2016.
Ultimately, as Donald’s last opponents in the primary, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich has left the race, leaving him a straight road down to clinching the nomination, it all came down to the birth of the “Never Trump” movement.
Funny enough, that political movement (oftentimes also referred to as the conservative think tank) consisted primarily of GOPers, who due to one reason or another just weren’t able to stomach Donald Trump as their party’s official nominee.
While their first pick, the conservative writer, and attorney David French was a floppy one, exiting the race 1 week after announcing he’d enter, there seemed to be no hope in sight.
However, when it was all but 4 major nominees in late August, as the party conventions were left behind, a brand new face emerged – an energized, young (44, compared to Hillary’s, Trump’s and Johnson’s late 60s) candidate.
His name was Evan McMullin, he was a CIA operative for years, praised by many GOP insiders and CIA officials prior to the election. But even most importantly, he was both a Mormon, just like Mitt Romney and a social conservative.
Ultimately, in a desperate hope for the “Never Trump” movement, McMullin managed to get on 11 state ballots, and effectively became the 5th major nominee in the race (or the 6th, if you count the Constitution Party’s Darrel Castle, who received whopping 0.14 % of the US vote, or if counted – almost 200 thousand votes).
But though Evan and his running mate Mindy Finn have ultimately received just 0.34 % of the vote, or just under half a million votes, as the world greeted Trump as President-elect, McMullin did begin to talk about making his run that earned 1 in each 200 US votes into a brand new conservative party.