I Saw the Future of Politics at an Evan McMullin Rally

The U.S. presidential election is not all about Donald Trump’s outrages or Hillary Clinton’s positioning as the the lesser evil. As an outside observer, I see hope in some Americans’ quixotic resolve to stand up to the ugliness of the main race: These efforts could grow into more politically effective movements by the next election cycle.

In Boise, Idaho, this weekend, I watched people packed into a high school auditorium warm to a ticket most Americans haven’t even heard of: Evan McMullin and Mindy Finn. McMullin, a 40-year-old former Central Intelligence Agency operative, Goldman Sachs banker and congressional aide, has only been running for president for 11 weeks. He hasn’t even raised $1 million. Yet, according to polls, he was even with Trump and Clinton in Utah, the state where he was born. One poll even showed him ahead. He wasn’t just the first third-party presidential candidate with a chance of winning a state since George Wallace in 1968 -- he’d be the first candidate in U.S. history to do so without a party affiliation. If he manages this, he’d have a platform to try to revamp the right flank of American politics -- his project after what he sees as an inevitable Clinton victory.