Challengers have been hard to come by, but the #NeverTrump dream will never die. The problem is that no Republican with a national profile would want to run as a third-party candidate because every Republican with a national profile has their eye firmly planted on 2020. So the schemers trying to stop Trump have had to settle for people with no national experience or any realistic chance whatsoever of striking a meaningful blow against Trump.
First, there was David French, the National Review weirdo who was Bill Kristol’s chosen candidate. That hope died, however, when French himself said he wasn’t into the idea. Now, Republican strategist and dogged anti-Trumpkin Rick Wilson has found his horse: Evan McMullin, a former CIA operative who is the chief policy director of the House Republican conference. How does McMullin compare to French, you ask? Here’s BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins, who broke the story:
Unlike National Review writer David French, another conservative courted by anti-Trump Republicans to launch a long-shot third-party bid, McMullin has virtually no public profile. He doesn’t appear regularly on television, and has just 135 followers on Twitter. His most high-profile recent appearance seems to have been a TEDx talk about genocide he gave at London Business School in April.
Lol.
But McMullin does have one thing going for him: He’s a Mormon and a graduate of Brigham Young University and is expected to campaign in Utah, whose Mormon-heavy electorate does not like the profligate and profane Trump. Could he swing enough votes away from Trump to turn Utah blue? The election is 90 days from now and this guy has 135 Twitter followers.