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Evan McMullin Fires Back After Trump Attack

Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin.

Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin got a signal boost over the weekend after Donald Trump accused him of taking away votes that he badly needs to win Utah.

McMullin had been rising in the polls in Utah even before the latest comments by Trump, accusing him of being a puppet and a “nobody.”

Speaking Monday on KUER’s RadioWest, McMullin said his campaign is growing, even beyond the Intermountain West.  

 

“We’re building something that is very real,” he said. “It’s too easy for people to say, ‘Oh, this is just a Mormon thing because Evan’s Mormon, and there are so many Mormons in Utah.' But I would encourage people to disabuse themselves of that misperception.”

 

McMullin, a Mormon Republican turned Independent, stands a serious chance of winning Utah’s six electoral votes next week. Recent polls have put him ahead or within the margin of error of beating Trump.

 

The third party candidate and his running mate, Mindy Finn, are on the ballot in 11 states and qualify as official write-in candidates in several dozen more.

 

His surge even caused the Trump campaign to send Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence to Salt Lake City last week — in a bid for disaffected Republicans to save their votes for the GOP. McMullin said he’s comfortable in his current role.

 

“I think Donald Trump and Mike Pence, who make these arguments, don’t understand what leadership is about and what America is about," he said. "They’re right, it isn’t about me. And yes, I am a nobody, but I’m comfortable being a nobody.”   

 

Although McMullin has his best chance in Utah, he could have even more of an effect in neighboring swing states, like Nevada or Arizona that have large numbers of Mormon voters. Provo’s Daily Herald gave McMullin his first newspaper endorsement on Sunday.

 

Julia joined KUER in 2016 after a year reporting at the NPR member station in Reno, Nev. During her stint, she covered battleground politics, school overcrowding, and any story that would take her to the crystal blue shores of Lake Tahoe. Her work earned her two regional Edward R. Murrow awards. Originally from the mountains of Western North Carolina, Julia graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2008 with a degree in journalism. She’s worked as both a print and radio reporter in several states and several countries — from the 2008 Beijing Olympics to Dakar, Senegal. Her curiosity about the American West led her to take a spontaneous, one-way road trip to the Great Basin, where she intends to continue preaching the gospel of community journalism, public radio and podcasting. In her spare time, you’ll find her hanging with her beagle Bodhi, taking pictures of her food and watching Patrick Swayze movies.
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