A Mormon and a Jew Are Poised to Be the First Third Party Presidential Ticket to Win a State Since 1968
Bernie Sanders’s campaign ended months ago, but at least one Jewish participant in this reliably horrific presidential election still has the chance to make history on November 8th. According to an Emerson College poll published this week, Evan McMullin, the independent conservative candidate for president, holds a slim lead over Donald Trump in his home state of Utah, topping Trump 31% to 27%. If McMullin were to win The Beehive State, the ex-CIA agent and former director of the House Republican Conference would snag six entire electoral votes—as would his running mate, former Republican strategist (and, we should note, member of the Tribe) Mindy Finn. This would be the first time since a maverick elector cast a vote for Libertarian John Hospers in 1972 that a third-party candidate took home an electoral tally, something that such one-time household names as John Anderson, Ross Perot, and Ralph Nader couldn’t accomplish. (In an ironic reversal, the last third-party candidate to win a state was segregationist George Wallace in 1968.)
It’s fitting that this election season could end with such a rarity. Anderson, Perot, and Nader were nationally prominent figures when they launched their independent bids for the presidency. But Perot, who got 19% of the popular vote in 1992, was up against incumbent president George H.W. Bush and charismatic Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. Anderson ran against the Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter in 1980. Third-party options aside, both elections offered a compelling binary choice between fairly traditional candidates. If McMullin and Finn win Utah, it would underscore the widespread dissatisfaction at the Republican and Democratic candidates, who at one point were the two least-popular presidential nominees in history.