Evan McMullin: Changing Positions and Dubious Honesty

Evan McMullin was a 40-year-old former Mormon missionary, CIA officer, investment banker, and congressional staffer, entirely unknown to the public, when he was recruited in 2016 to offer Republican voters an outlet for a protest vote against Donald Trump. There was no pretense at the time that McMullin was prepared for the presidency or expected to win it; he was selected by the people now behind the Lincoln Project and the Bulwark only after more experienced politicians such as Mitt Romney and public commentators such as David French (who was then writing for National Review) turned down the mission. At the time, McMullin’s task was simply to provide a placeholder for Republican and Republican-leaning voters who were mortified by the choices on offer and had, for the most part, already decided not to vote for Trump.

I and other conservative Republican voters pulled the lever for McMullin for president six years ago in order to send a message that our quarrel was not with Republican policy positions but with Trump’s unfitness for office. All McMullin had to do in order to be a vessel for that protest was to be more honorable than Trump or Hillary Clinton, more pro-life than Clinton, Gary Johnson, or Jill Stein, less apparently isolationist than Trump, Johnson, or Stein, and generally not raise any significant dissent from Republican positions on the issues. These were all low bars.

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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Evan McMullin was a 40-year-old former Mormon missionary, CIA officer, investment banker, and congressional staffer, entirely unknown to the public, when he was recruited in 2016 to offer Republican voters an outlet for a protest vote against Donald Trump. There was no pretense at the time that McMullin was prepared for the presidency or expected to win it; he was selected by the people now behind the Lincoln Project and the Bulwark only after more experienced politicians such as Mitt Romney and public commentators such as David French (who was then writing for National Review) turned down the mission. At the time, McMullin’s task was simply to provide a placeholder for Republican and Republican-leaning voters who were mortified by the choices on offer and had, for the most part, already decided not to vote for Trump.

I and other conservative Republican voters pulled the lever for McMullin for president six years ago in order to send a message that our quarrel was not with Republican policy positions but with Trump’s unfitness for office. All McMullin had to do in order to be a vessel for that protest was to be more honorable than Trump or Hillary Clinton, more pro-life than Clinton, Gary Johnson, or Jill Stein, less apparently isolationist than Trump, Johnson, or Stein, and generally not raise any significant dissent from Republican positions on the issues. These were all low bars.