Another Republican Running For President

[MI2AZ]

Evan McMullin, an anti-Trump Republican, is launching a third-party bid Monday, reports BuzzFeed. “It’s never too late to do the right thing, and America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can offer us," McMullin said in a statement to ABC News. "I humbly offer myself as a leader who can give millions of disaffected Americans a conservative choice for President." Though he's believed to be working with Better for America—a group calling for an independent bid—and GOP strategist Rick Wilson, the CIA veteran is a long shot. He's young, unmarried, has never held elective office, "has virtually no public profile," and had only 135 followers on Twitter before his bid, reports BuzzFeed. Those followers, however, have been privy to his attacks on Trump for months. McMullin recently labeled him an "authoritarian" and has demanded that he release his tax returns.

McMullin currently holds the post of chief policy director of the House Republican Conference and previously worked on a commercial fishing boat, as a volunteer refugee resettlement officer for the UN, an operations officer for the CIA, and an investment banking associate at Goldman Sachs, reports Politico, via his LinkedIn page. He also has an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and gave a TEDx Talk on genocide this past April. Sources say he has the support of key Republican donors.

 

[AlwaysWrite]

Evan McMullin, an anti-Trump Republican, is launching a third-party bid Monday, reports BuzzFeed. “It’s never too late to do the right thing, and America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can offer us," McMullin said in a statement to ABC News. "I humbly offer myself as a leader who can give millions of disaffected Americans a conservative choice for President." Though he's believed to be working with Better for America—a group calling for an independent bid—and GOP strategist Rick Wilson, the CIA veteran is a long shot. He's young, unmarried, has never held elective office, "has virtually no public profile," and had only 135 followers on Twitter before his bid, reports BuzzFeed. Those followers, however, have been privy to his attacks on Trump for months. McMullin recently labeled him an "authoritarian" and has demanded that he release his tax returns.

McMullin currently holds the post of chief policy director of the House Republican Conference and previously worked on a commercial fishing boat, as a volunteer refugee resettlement officer for the UN, an operations officer for the CIA, and an investment banking associate at Goldman Sachs, reports Politico, via his LinkedIn page. He also has an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and gave a TEDx Talk on genocide this past April. Sources say he has the support of key Republican donors.

... and those "key Republican donors" are only, in essence, assisting Hillary.

 

[9andaWiggle]

Could be interesting to see who wins more votes between Jill Stein and Evan McMullin. Would be awesome, actually, to see the chaos that would ensue if Jill and Evan were able to steal enough voters to make it a race between them, eliminating both hillary and donald.

 

[livespive]

That will not happen.....

Too many blind voters on both sides.

Could be interesting to see who wins more votes between Jill Stein and Evan McMullin. Would be awesome, actually, to see the chaos that would ensue if Jill and Evan were able to steal enough voters to make it a race between them, eliminating both hillary and donald.

 

[Greg T.]

Hired and paid for by the Clintons to take votes from Trump. McMullin has no desire to win.

 

[Monster Pike]

What else is new... Same ole politics. One can also "feel the Johnson", LMAO!

 

[MI2AZ]

Sunday afternoon, Evan McMullin was a little-known former CIA officer-turned-congressional aide.

Monday morning he announced he was running for president of the United States, and by the end of the day he had his own super PAC backing his quirky independent bid.

Two alumni of a 2012 effort to get a third party candidate on presidential ballots nationwide have created a super PAC called Stand Up America to back McMullin's campaign, which is clearly meant as a protest against Donald Trump.

"Evan McMullin is the candidate American voters have been asking for — a patriot who has served his nation honorably, an independent who places loyalty to America over party loyalty, a mainstream conservative who believes in classic American values," said Kahlil Byrd, co-founder of Stand Up America.

In 2012, Byrd was CEO of Americans Elect, an effort to get a crowd-sourced candidate placed on the ballot in all 50 states. That effort failed when none of the candidates won enough support to to meet the group's threshold to be chosen as the nominee. His partner in the new PAC is campaign lawyer Chris Ashby, who also worked with Americans Elect.

Earlier this year, Byrd had signed on as an adviser with a group called Better for America that was trying to secure ballot access nationwide for a presidential candidate who could serve as an alternative to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Byrd told The Washington Post that he quit that affiliation over the weekend so he could work on McMullin's PAC.

McMullin previously served as policy chief for the House Republican Conference, and he has never run for office prior to launching his White House bid. It is not clear how he will get on enough states' presidential ballots to have an impact on the race, as many state deadlines have passed, and collecting the signatures needed around the country can cost millions of dollars.

It is also not clear he will be able to ride the coattails of Better for America. "Better For America has a nominating process that will begin later in this election cycle, and no BFA ballot line in any state will be committed to a candidate, until the nomination process has been completed," the group said in a statement.

McMullin has for several months been posting anti-Trump messages on his social media pages.

Opposing @realDonaldTrump is about putting principle over power, a virtue some in Washington are too quick to abandon. #NeverTrump

— Evan McMullin (@Evan_McMullin) May 7, 2016