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No doubt that Arizona is catching attention for its own battle of the brethren for the State Senate, but that,,,'s small stakes in the eyes of Politico deserving a latter analysis ...and scroll down farther for a report from Deseret in Salt Lake City
Welcome to the strangest Senate race in America
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is facing his first real reelection challenge from an ex-Republican endorsed by Democrats who, if elected, would caucus with neither party.
Utah is home to the Great Salt Lake, the NBA’s Jazz and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Oh, and the strangest Senate race in America.
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There’s Evan McMullin, a former presidential candidate who’s convinced Utah Democrats to not run a candidate while saying he’d buck both Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell to become a one-man caucus if he’s elected. Then there’s incumbent Sen. Mike Lee, a pugnacious two-term conservative who once detested Donald Trump so much that his 2016 presidential pick was ... McMullin.
Awkwardly stuck in the middle: Sen. Mitt Romney, whose neutrality in the race McMullin “greatly appreciates.”
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McMullin is running as an independent in the mold of Romney or Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a novel strategy that requires support from Democrats, independents and anti-Trump Republicans in a deep-red state. He says the race is “close,” citing public polls showing him within 5 points; during an interview, Lee handed over an internal poll showing him up by 14.
Even as a clear underdog, McMullin is making it the most competitive Utah Senate race in perhaps 30 years. It’s a remarkable test of McMullin’s unproven theory that he can topple a conservative by running a one-on-one race with no Democratic spoiler. The matchup is as much about the last six years of the Republican Party — and Lee’s place in it — as it is about McMullin’s half-court heave of a political strategy.
“I’m taking it very seriously,” Lee said in an interview. “It’s still closer than I’d like it to be.”
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During a 35-minute interview, McMullin says his state deserves two Romneys and vowed that “I will be in a coalition in the Senate as I am in Utah, with other pro-democracy senators.” Yet how he’d make that work without joining either the GOP or Democratic side of the aisle is a nagging question.
“When you advise spurious legal challenges to a free and fair election that were designed to convince tens of millions of Americans that the election was stolen … that is not what a constitutional conservative does,” McMullin said.
Lee counters that he was merely exploring the validity of the Trump team’s “unusual and surprising” legal arguments about widespread fraud: “So I made phone calls. The rumors were not true. And I voted to certify the election.”
Though he came to enjoy a close relationship with Trump, Lee is not a down-the-line Trump Republican. The Utahn recalled telling Trump at the start of his presidency that if you “fight to protect and restore federalism and separation of powers, you have no greater ally. And so far as you undermine those things, I will be a thorn in your side.”
The well-funded GOP super PAC Senate Leadership Fund “will be there if [Lee] needs us,” said a spokesperson. But in a sign of how awkward the race is for Utah Republicans, who are split between the politics of Romney and Trump, a spokesperson for Gov. Spencer Cox (R-Utah) said he was “unavailable” for an interview.
“There’s never been a race like this,” said Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), who supports Lee.
DESERET NEWS
KEEP UTAH… WEIRD?— Across the country in Utah, one of the strangest Senate races this cycle is playing out. Evan McMullin, a former Republican, is running as an independent backed by state Democrats. And he insists he wouldn’t caucus with either party if he gets to Washington. (Would make for a lonely lunch club.) He’s challenging incumbent Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) who morphed into a Trump ally during the former president’s tenure. But he didn’t vote for Trump in 2016. He cast his ballot for… McMullin. And that’s not the half of it.
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Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is staying out of the fray, not endorsing either candidate. Burgess dips into the strange state of affairs: Welcome to the strangest Senate race in America
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