Democratic Party’s new alliance with Evan McMullin is bad news for insurrectionist Senator Mike Lee
The Democratic Party of Utah has just endorsed Evan McMullin, a registered Independent, in an effort to unseat insurrectionist Republican Senator Mike Lee. There’s certainly precedent for this; there are two registered Independents in the Senate right now (Bernie Sanders and Angus King) who are allied with the Democratic Party and vote with the Democrats nearly every time. What makes this notable is that McMullin is a former Republican who isn’t anybody’s idea of a liberal.
Here’s the thing, though. No Democratic candidate, no matter how good, was ever going to win a U.S. Senate race in Utah. That’s just not a thing. The last time Republican Mike Lee ran for reelection, he beat the Democratic candidate by forty points. But Evan McMullin is a different story. He’s popular in Utah. He’ll appeal to moderate and moderately conservative voters who have soured on the Trump-Republican Party. Combine those votes with the Democratic vote in the state, and McMullin has a decent chance to win.
There’s no word on whether McMullin would officially caucus with Senate Democrats, and Sanders and King have always done. And he would presumably only vote with the Democrats some of the time, since he doesn’t agree with the Democrats on all of the issues. But a McMullin victory would remove Mike Lee from the Senate, thus costing the Republicans one seat in the majority headcount, and costing the Republicans a reliable vote for their side.
Most of the polling thus far in the Utah race has been based on the presumption of a three way race between Lee, McMullin, and the Democratic candidate. Now that McMullin is the de facto Democratic candidate, we’ll have to wait for two-way polling to be conducted in this race so we can see just how competitive it’s going to be. But keep in mind that Mike Lee’s recently unearthed text messages mean he’s about to be deeply embroiled in scandal once the January 6th Committee public hearings get underway, which could steer some more Utah voters in McMullin’s direction. Keep an eye on this one.
