Two months remain until election day, and independent U.S. Evan McMullin, a candidate for the Senate, keeps insisting that a two-party system is no longer the best option. Still, Mike Lee’s supporters want to see him keep his majority. On Wednesday night, McMullin held a rally in downtown Salt Lake City, claiming that the causes he supports transcend political parties.
He said, “This year and this decade, we will decide whether to continue on the path defined by our founding truths, towards a perfect union or to yield to those who, for cynical self-interest, now promote a dark alternative to democracy in America. Party loyalty has “infected the nation,” according to McMullin, and Utah needs to change.
“You soon stop representing your voters or the people in your state if you aren’t willing to stand up to party bosses and special interest groups or extremist factions in your party, and that’s what happened to Senator Lee,” he said. Lee was contacted by FOX 13 News for comment. Since the senator was not present, his team was represented by Amelia Powers Gardner, a Utah County Commissioner and co-chair of his reelection campaign.
She claimed that while McMullin was a conservative alternative to the Republicans when he first ran for president, he is now a moderate one. We don’t know Evan McMullin’s location, and I believe he will say whatever is necessary to win the election. According to Powers Gardner, Lee’s issues—such as data privacy and criminal justice reform—are much more partisan-neutral than McMullin’s. Utahns don’t want their data to be widely collected by the federal government, and she said, regardless of whether they support the ACLU on the left or the right.
In every American election, Republicans have prevailed. Utah has had a senate race since 1976. While Lee’s supporters want to see that streak continue, McMullin wants to end it. Powers Gardner asserted that Utahns “recognize the great work that Senator Lee has done, and we’re going to keep him in Washington for us.” We can face this danger together and come out stronger, McMullin said. “For America and Utah.”
