Utah Democrats took an extraordinary decision at their party’s convention on Saturday. Rather than field a candidate of their own, they voted to endorse independent candidate Evan McMullin for the Senate race against incumbent Sen. Mike Lee.
Utah hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1970 when FranK Moss was re-elected, but he was defeated by Republican Orrin Hatch in 1976.
After a chaotic convention on Saturday at a high school in a Salt Lake City suburb, Democratic delegates decided to endorse McMullin, a former Republican, over Democrat Kael Weston, a former State Department diplomat who lost a House race in 2020, the Deseret News reported.
In 2016, McMullin, a former CIA operative, ran an unsuccessful independent campaign for president. In Utah , he placed third with 22% of the vote. Donald Trump won with 46% to Hillary Clinton’s 27%.
McMullin, a never Trumper and former Republican, said the convention’s decision shows “Utah Democrats are putting country over party,” according to the Deseret News. “We have a tremendous amount of common ground (in) this coalition of Democrats, independents, principled Republicans ... who want to make a change. This idea that our differences are greater than what we have in common are just false.”
So with Democrats not putting forth their own candidate, there is now a real threat to Lee’s re-election bid in a state that normally would be safely Republican.
“We know that Sen. Mike Lee was quite involved in the effort to overturn our democracy,” McMullin told reporters shortly after his victory was reflected in vote tallies, according to the Deseret News..
“We have got to take a stand as Utahns,” McMullin said. “This is a line that cannot be crossed, our right to hold our leaders accountable and to vote for or against them and have a peaceful transition of power is essential for liberty and justice in America. We cannot compromise on that, and we must all be united to defend it.”
Lee has been in the headlines recently for his text messages to then-Whie House chief of staff Mark Meadows in which he explored ideas on how to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Lee ultimately decided to certify the electoral results on Jan. 6
Weston indicated that he would accept the convention results and not mount a primary challenge.
“Of course you want to be the candidate that walks out with a unanimous degree of support, but I knew this was always going to be an important conversation to have,” Weston said, thanking his supporters. “It was a real conversation. It was loud and unpredictable, and I accept what delegates have decided to do.”
In the week before the convention, Weston told the Deseret News that choosing not to put a Democrat on the November ballot would “short-circuit” the democratic process at the expense of important policy issues that Democrats care about like housing, air quality and water.
“The Utah Democratic Party is not the unseat Mike Lee party,” Weston told the newspaper.“If this campaign is just about Mike Lee, Utah families lose out.”
At the convention, there was a very heated debate among delegates before the final vote was taken. The motion to back McMullin won with 782 votes to Weston’s 594.
McMullin had the support of several high-profile Utah Democrats including former Rep. Ben McAdams and Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson. They believed that not putting up a candidate would be the right move to boost the chances of defeating Lee.
At Saturday’s convention, McAdams told delegates that McMullin would bring “new, courageous leadership to break the mold” and “heal the divide” in Congress. “Evan is the right person for this moment, I know Evan. I trust Evan.”
McMullin gave a brief speech to delegates at the convention. He said: “I want to represent you. I’m committed to that. I will maintain my independence, .. We will show the rest of the country how we beat people like Mike Lee who try to overturn our democracy in the shadows.”
In response to a query on Twitter, McMullin said he was not going to caucus with either party if elected to the Senate:
“I’m not going to caucus with either side so that I can maintain my independence and represent the Democrats, Republicans, independents and others who have joined our coalition. It will make Utah the most influential state in the Union..”
Lee, who has Donald Trump’s endorsement, will be facing at least two Republican challengers in the June 28 primary. A poll taken by the Deseret News last month showed Lee leading with 67%, with his closest challenger, former state legislator Becky Edwards at 19%.
The poll was taken before the new came out about Lee’s conversations with Mark Meadows about overturning the 2020 presidential election results.
(This story has been updated to add that McMullin has tweeted that he does not intend to caucus with either party if elected to the Senate.)
