UT Sen 2022: McMullin vs. Lee

[JMT]

I bet he ends up being the de facto Democrat like Greg Orman or Al Gross. In any case, I still expect Lee to win fairly easily.

Agreed, I imagine he’ll be the de facto Democratic nominee. Utah Democrats don’t have a credible candidate, so they might as well back a high profile independent.

Also agree, this race won’t be competitive in any case. Safe Republican.

[JMT]

https://twitter.com/evanmcmullin/status/1445365771828334594?s=21

[JMT]

The race is Safe R regardless of what Dems do, but I'm curious to see the % McMuffin ends up etting.

Agreed. I do still hope the Democratic candidate drops out in favor of McMullin, just so the race can be closer. But, Lee will win regardless, unfortunately.

[JMT]

https://mobile.twitter.com/ScottTParkinson/status/1506372959920967687
Gonna be interesting to see how this ends up.

Also,
https://mobile.twitter.com/sltrib/status/1510361454645583887

Democrats might as well support McMullin’s candidacy and boot Weston from the ballot. It’s better to have a, say, ~5% chance of winning than a 0% chance. I think it’s a good idea.

That said, the strategy of backing an independent as the de facto Democratic nominee hasn’t worked in other states. I’m thinking Greg Orman in Kansas in 2014, and Al Gross and Alyse Galvin in Alaska in 2020. It DID work for Bill Walker in Alaska in 2014, but Governor’s races aren’t the same as federal races.

[JMT]

https://twitter.com/katiemckellar1/status/1517988035895328769?s=21&t=PzQ2GnE...

[JMT]

Hilarious that the UT Dems are lining up behind a guy who will vote 90+% with the Republican agenda.

His platform is actually similar to a moderate Democrat, so he probably would vote with the Democrats more and caucus with them. (He even has "avoiding unnecessary wars" as one of his priorities, which is fairly unusual for anti-Trump conservatives!)

He seemingly did a 180 on abortion, also. A Romney/McMullin delegation would just be the funniest thing.

I imagine McMullin won’t publicly state which party he will caucus with before the election (similar to what Angus King did when he initially ran for Senate in 2012). Given that he actively sought the Democratic Party’s endorsement, however (he spoke at their convention this weekend), I do think he’d caucus with Democrats if he won. I’m sure Mike Lee will push him on this, and probably will claim (in ads, debates etc.) that McMullin will just be another vote for Democrats.

McMullin’s actual voting record would be interesting if he won, though. Unlike Angus King and Bernie Sanders (who are essentially Democrats in terms of their voting records), I imagine McMullin would vote with Republicans a lot (perhaps even a majority of the time?).

[JMT]

Well, apparently this question has already been asked. McMullin claims he would not caucus with either party:

https://twitter.com/mckaycoppins/status/1518217894001324033?s=21&t=1PY2d0Aau...