Utah poll: Trump, Clinton tied, Evan McMillin rises to 22%, could win electoral votes
Voters are frustrated with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and while he’s a longshot third-party candidate, Evan McMullin, has risen to challenge the big names in his home state of Utah.
Wednesday morning, a new poll showed him at 22 percent in his home state of Utah — with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump tied at 26 percent. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson sits at 14 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s 1 percent.
“I’ll make a prediction: He’s going to win the state,” said Dave Hansen, a political adviser to Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), on Wednesday. “I think people don’t want Trump and they don’t like Clinton out here, and he is kind of the unknown, but people like him. He’s a safe place to go to cast their ballot.”
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In response to the new lewd video of Trump, Representative Jason Chaffetz and Governor Gary Herbert withdrew their endorsements of the GOP nominee over the weekend, while Senator Mike Lee and former governor Jon Huntsman called on the GOP nominee to quit the race.
Chaffetz dropped his support, announcing in a statement, “I’m out.” Love released a similar statement, saying, “I cannot vote for him.”
If McMullin won Utah’s six electoral votes, he would make it almost impossible for Trump to reach the 270 needed to win the White House.
McMullin is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and House GOP staffer hoping to disrupt the system and put the pressure on the House to pick the next president.
If the presidential election doesn’t yield an electoral college winner, the winner will be settled by the House of Representatives, in the process laid out by the Constitution’s Twelfth Amendment: The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice.
“We’re talking to pretty much all of the key leaders in Utah,” McMullin campaign chief strategist Joel Searby said. “We have had direct communication with every leader in Utah who has either not supported Trump previously or has since unendorsed Trump. Every single one.
