Mike Lee a Better Man Than Evan McMullin

I agree wholeheartedly with our editorial endorsing Mike Lee for reelection against “independent” Evan McMullin. Utah voters know what they are getting in Mike Lee. They know where he stands on issue after issue. They also know that a vote for Lee is a vote for Republicans to oust the Democrats from control of the Senate. They know that, over a six-year term of office, Lee will be a reliable and predictable supporter of both conservative policy and Republican control of the chamber, as well as being a hard-working senator who is a leader, not just a follower, on matters of public policy and the judiciary. What you have seen in the past of Mike Lee is what you can expect to get in the future.

Not so Evan McMullin. McMullin is running a campaign that is an active insult to the intelligence of Utah voters. I now regret choosing McMullin as the vehicle for my protest vote in the 2016 presidential election, and most of the McMullin voters I know feel the same way. Lee himself voted for McMullin, and obviously shares the sentiment. But fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Since he burst onto the scene in that race, McMullin has, as I have documented at some length (and as is further detailed in our editorial and by David Harsanyi), reinvented himself. In the process, he has revealed that he never really believed the message he sold us in 2016 about who he is and what he believes. His entire public persona was a fraud. For good measure, he never paid back his campaign debts, stiffing his vendors to the Trumpian tune of $664,000.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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I agree wholeheartedly with our editorial endorsing Mike Lee for reelection against “independent” Evan McMullin. Utah voters know what they are getting in Mike Lee. They know where he stands on issue after issue. They also know that a vote for Lee is a vote for Republicans to oust the Democrats from control of the Senate. They know that, over a six-year term of office, Lee will be a reliable and predictable supporter of both conservative policy and Republican control of the chamber, as well as being a hard-working senator who is a leader, not just a follower, on matters of public policy and the judiciary. What you have seen in the past of Mike Lee is what you can expect to get in the future.

Not so Evan McMullin. McMullin is running a campaign that is an active insult to the intelligence of Utah voters. I now regret choosing McMullin as the vehicle for my protest vote in the 2016 presidential election, and most of the McMullin voters I know feel the same way. Lee himself voted for McMullin, and obviously shares the sentiment. But fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Since he burst onto the scene in that race, McMullin has, as I have documented at some length (and as is further detailed in our editorial and by David Harsanyi), reinvented himself. In the process, he has revealed that he never really believed the message he sold us in 2016 about who he is and what he believes. His entire public persona was a fraud. For good measure, he never paid back his campaign debts, stiffing his vendors to the Trumpian tune of $664,000.