Former House Republican staffer Evan McMullin is not ruling a potential run for either U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. McMullin ran as a “Never Trump” independent conservative presidential candidate.
McMullin, who has been denigrated as “Egg McMuffin” by President Donald Trump and others appears to be polling well in a race against Republican Senator Orrin Hatch. A poll commissioned by the Centrist Project and done by JMC Analytics shows that McMullin would win 33% of the vote to Hatch’s 29%. A generic Democrat got 11%.
But the U.S. Senate is not the only race that McMullin is looking at.
A source close to Evan McMullin tells me he’s considering running to fill Jason Chaffetz’s congressional seat.
— Jim Dalrymple II (@JimDalrympleII) April 19, 2017
McMullin for his part says he is likely to run for office again.
Here’s McMullin himself, in a Reddit ama last month, talking about the prospect of running in Utah. https://t.co/XBq3zpWtvU pic.twitter.com/eQDNa122qP
— Jim Dalrymple II (@JimDalrympleII) April 19, 2017
Another reason why McMullin may run for office is to pay off his old campaign debts. From the Salt Lake Tribune:
Evan McMullin ran a long-shot — and ultimately failed — campaign last year to deny Donald Trump enough Electoral College votes to keep him from the presidency, but now the Utah native faces a hefty bill that will be challenging to pay off and could hamper efforts to enter the political arena again.
McMullin, who jumped into the presidential race a few months before Election Day, still owes some $670,000 to vendors who helped his campaign, including more than half a million dollars to a law firm.
Presidential candidates who didn’t win the White House often face a large tab when the dust clears — it took Hillary Clinton four years to pay off millions in debt from her 2008 campaign — but for McMullin, who as an independent has no party apparatus to help, the bills are daunting.
The largest single amount McMullin owes is to a Florida-based law firm Hopping, Green, & Sams. McMullin owes them $520,000. He retained the law firm to help with ballot access lawsuits, however none were filed. Running for political office again would be an easy for McMullin to pay these debts off.
McMullin eventually campaigned primarily in Utah. He came in third place behind Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
McMullin was the choice for various “Never Trump” conservative pundits and social media celebrities. But a quick review of his Twitter account shows that McMullin spends most of his time bashing Republicans and President Trump. At times, his rhetoric is often indistinguishable from liberal Democrats.
