The ‘unknown Mormon’ who could steal Utah from Trump and Clinton
AS INTERSTATE 15 slices through the Rocky Mountains near Salt Lake City, there sits a billboard posted by an enterprising estate agent.
It features caricatures of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton with the tagline, “Moving to Canada? We’ll sell your house!”
A mention of either major party candidate in this majority-Mormon and deeply conservative state is likely to elicit a groan, or a shake of the head.
That antipathy for both candidates is unparalleled elsewhere in the US, and has propelled Utah into a three-way race, turning a reliably Republican stronghold into an unlikely swing state.
“If Mormons are not the exact opposite of Trump, they would at least aspire to be,” says Quin Monson, a professor of political science at Brigham Young University, citing Mr Trump’s 73 per cent disapproval rate among Mormons.
Mormons are a historically persecuted minority for whom rhetoric about banning Muslims and deporting Mexicans rings all too familiar, Mr Monson says.
The churchowned
published a recent editorial urging the businessman to resign the nomination over his “evil” comments about groping women.
Mrs Clin- ton’s policies clash with Mormon orthodoxy at least as much, however, and she is even less popular. Out of that vacuum has stepped Evan McMullin, a political independent, Utah native, former CIA operative and, like 85 per cent of the state’s Republicans, a Mormon. Virtually anonymous elsewhere, Mr McMullin, 40, did not declare for president until August but has recently passed Mrs Clinton in the polls here and drawn even with Mr Trump. Mr McMullin admitted to that many Americans are “still getting to know us”. “A three-month presidential campaign is far from ideal, we’re the first to acknowledge that,” he said. “All we can do is engage as much as we can, that’s why we’re depending so much on social media. “Our supporters have been phenomenal,” he adds. “They’ve carried us.” Several hundred of those supporters assembled at a high school gymnasium in Draper on Friday to hear him speak. Greeting them was Theresa Valdivia, an erstwhile Clinton supporter now among Mr McMullin’s army of enthusiastic volunteers. “I just couldn’t take the circus any more,” she said. “I could not stand the circus that was Hillary and Trump.” Inside, Robert and Roxanne McKinnon sang the praises of Mr McMullin, “He’s polite, he’s like the neighbour next door,” Robert said. “I could go over and shake his hand and have a conversation with him.” Roxanne, an immigrant from Hong Kong, said the race between Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton had caused her faith her adoptive in country to waver. “That we as a nation could sink so low as to pick these people, I was in despair,” she said. “When Mr McMullin came along I thought, ‘maybe there is some hope for us’.”
Howard Stephenson, a state senator, provided a resounding introduction.
“Utah has a chance to prove that we put principles above party, we put principles above politics,” he roared, to thunderous applause.
Upon taking the stage, Mr McMullin readily admitted to the bizarre nature of the race in Utah. “You’ve created something that the nation is trying to understand,” he said. “They’re in awe of this. I’m in awe of this”.
Lydia Pipkin, chairman of the Weber County Republican Party, is not awestruck, however. Divisions in the party have made it harder to organise volunteers for local campaigns. “That somebody is willing to support someone after six weeks and they know nothing … you haven’t had time to find any skeletons in the closet so you assume they don’t have any?” she said.
Mrs Clinton has teams of volunteers canvassing Salt Lake City in shifts. One of them, 54-year-old Tami Sablan, said she was working seven days a week to help turn Utah blue for the first time since she was a toddler.
Gloria Steinem, the feminist icon, spoke on behalf of Mrs Clinton on Friday at a local campaign headquarters.
“I look forward to coming back for a victory celebration,” she said.
Misty K Snow, the Democratic nominee for senate, said the state party had been rejuvenated. “There’s a lot of genuine excitement that I think has been missing in recent elections and hopefully that makes a difference,” Ms Snow, who would be the first transgender senator if elected, told
The 2012 race, in which Mitt Romney walloped Barack Obama in Utah by 48 points, is beginning to feel more and more distant. In March Mr Romney, a Mormon, excoriated Mr Trump in a speech that has reverberated throughout the campaign here.
Rick Wilson, the long-time Republican strategist and a leader of the socalled Never Trump movement, attempted to woo Mr Romney before joining forces with Mr McMullin. He marvels at what has been achieved. “This is a guy that no one knew six weeks ago,” he said. “No one knew him.”
In a race where many Utahns feel they know altogether too much about the leading candidates, a dose of anonymity might make all the difference.