David Evan McMullin (born on April 2, 1976) is a former CIA operations officer and independent presidential candidate. He ran for office as an independent in the 2016 United States presidential election. He calls himself a conservative alternative to the main presidential candidates. McMullin did not win any states in the election, but he performed well in Utah, where he got 20% of the popular vote.

Early life and career 

McMullin was born on 2 April 1976 in Provo, Utah, to David McMullin and Lanie Bullard. At a young age, his family moved to a rural area outside of Seattle, Washington, where his father worked as a computer scientist and his mother sold bulk foods to neighbors from the family's garage.

He joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after the September 11 attacks.

2016 Presidential campaign 

On 8 August 2016, McMullin announced that he would run as a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 presidential election as an independent. He decided to run because he saw Donald Trump as being an unfit conservative candidate.

McMullin had the support of several anti-Trump Republican donors. McMullin's campaign was supported by some members of the "Never Trump" movement.

On 6 October, he named Mindy Finn to be his running mate.

His support in Utah mainly arrived after a 2005 audio recording in which Donald Trump was heard bragging in about making unwanted sexual advances on women.

After the 2016 campaign 
After the 2016 campaign, McMullin became a strong critic of Trump and Putin. In a December 2016, op-ed, McMullin blasted Trump as a threat to American constitutional government, saying that the president-elect's actions were "consistent with the authoritarian playbook" and "undermined critical democratic norms including peaceful debate and transitions of power, commitment to truth, freedom from foreign interference and abstention from the use of executive power for political retribution."

To answer if there was any possibility of him running for Jason Chaffetz's seat in 2018, he said: "It is likely that I will seek public office again. That might be in 2018 or it might be sometime down the road, perhaps very far down the road. I genuinely just don't know yet. I'm very focused on things that I think need to be done ASAP and Mindy Finn and I, with our team at Stand Up Republic, advancing them now. It is possible that I will challenge Chaffetz or Senator Hatch, but there are a lot of factors that go into that decision." In the end, he did not run for either office.

Results 

Below is a table showing his performance in various states. He did not win any state, so subsequently, he did not win any electoral votes.

Political beliefs 

McMullin is against abortion. He also wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. He said that we would want to reduce unintended pregnancies and promote adoption.

He believes in the "traditional marriage between a man and a woman," but "respects" the Obergefell v. Hodges decision (which allowed same-sex marriage nationwide) and wants to "move on" from the issue.

McMullin supports free trade, and believes that it has a lot of benefits. He supports NAFTA and the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership.

He also wants to reduce the corporate tax, individual income tax. and the estate tax.

He wants to cut some support of programs like Social Security, and raise the retirement age.

McMullin is one of the few conservatives in the United States who believes in climate change that is caused by humans. He said,"I do believe that the climate is changing, and I do believe that human activity is contributing to it. If I were president, I would increase investment in technologies that can help us limit and decrease our carbon emissions."

On immigration, McMullin supports more border security but not mass deportation.

McMullin supports the part of Obamacare that doesn't allow health insurance companies to deny coverage against people with preexisting conditions. However, he also said that "we also need to do better than ObamaCare."

McMullin admires foreign leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu and Shinzō Abe.

He believes that Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, has an "allegiance to Russian President Vladimir Putin." McMullin accused Putin of trying to destabilize European and North American countries "through fomenting discord between different racial groups, different ethnic groups and different religious groups."

McMullin supports keeping the Guantanamo Bay detention camp open and opposes the use of torture and has criticized Trump's support for it.

References

Other websites 
 Evan McMullin for President campaign website 
 Evan McMullin on Linkedin
 Evan McMullin Discusses Genocide in TEDx Talk at London Business School

1976 births
Living people
American Latter Day Saints
Civil servants
Politicians from Utah
2016 United States presidential candidates