Though at one point independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin seemed to stand a good chance of winning Utah's six electoral votes in the 2016 election for president, he ended up coming in behind Republican nominee Donald Trump.
As of the Daily Herald's print deadline Tuesday night, McMullin had 20.7 percent of Utah's vote, compared with Trump's 45.4 percent. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton earned 29.1 percent of votes.
Exit polls released by Brigham Young University Tuesday night projected McMullin would take only 21 percent of Utah's vote to Trump's 37 and Clinton's 33. McMullin did not concede the race until 10:40 p.m.
McMullin said that despite the numbers, the movement he started was about more than just an election. He and his supporters are adamant the conservative movement they began in Utah does not end along with his bid for president.
"This fight does not end tonight," McMullin told supporters who gathered at The Depot in Salt Lake City for an election watch party. "This fight will continue."
McMullin said the effort of starting a new conservative movement has only just begun, and that it would continue in Utah and the Mountain West.
"Make no mistake that whatever the returns may be, we are declaring victory,” said McMullin's chief spokesperson, Rina Shah, before election results started rolling in Tuesday.
Many eyes were on Utah as residents cast their ballots to help choose the next president of the United States, as it was the only state in the nation that had a third-party candidate presenting a valid threat to the two major-party candidates. Both Trump and Clinton had been unpopular in the traditionally conservative stronghold that gave almost 73 percent of its votes to Republican candidate Mitt Romney in 2012.
McMullin launched his bid in August in protest of the two major-party candidates, touting traditional conservative ideals minus the racism and misogyny that he says have crept into the Republican Party under Trump's leadership.
Polls in October showed the race in a virtual three-way tie in Utah, though Trump's numbers had gradually crept upward in multiple, more recent polls. A Y2 Analytics poll released Friday showed Trump leading McMullin by 5 percentage points, 33 to 28, with Clinton behind in third with 24 percent.
Utah was the only state in which McMullin garnered enough support to threaten a win, but he drew support from dissatisfied voters from around the country. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who had himself run for the GOP nomination, tweeted on Tuesday afternoon that he cast his vote for McMullin, becoming the first U.S. senator to publicly support McMullin as a candidate.
Utah was uniquely receptive to McMullin, who was born in Provo, attended Brigham Young University and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"This state in particular has been perfect for our message," Shah said.
One of the campaign's objectives in trying to win Utah was to keep either Trump or Clinton from reaching the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, forcing the issue to be decided by the U.S. House of Representatives — a goal supporters were still holding out hope for on election night.
"We are kind of disruptive people, and we want to disrupt this election with the electoral votes from Utah, so that’s what this is really about," said Alpine resident Richard Dick, who spent election night at the McMullin watch party.
But ultimately, the sights of the campaign were also set on a different, larger goal: starting a new conservative movement, a priority leaders of the movement say will continue on far past election night.
"There’s a lot of people who have said to me, 'What’s next?" McMullin's chief strategist, Joel Searby, told about 200 people gathered at the watch party. "‘I want to be a part of this. Tell me how to get involved.' So we are going to have ways to get involved."
During his concession speech, McMullin said the campaign may have come up short in Utah on Tuesday night, but that it did not lessen the need for the new conservative movement he's been working toward.
"The Republican Party can no longer be considered home for conservatives," McMullin said.
Richard Dick and his wife, Colleen Dick, said that, regardless of who won the presidential election, they definitely want to be part of any future conservative movement McMullin has begun.
"We want to get behind a whole new conservative movement. I haven’t felt like I’ve had a party for years," Colleen Dick said. "Actually, I feel like the Republican Party has left me. I didn’t leave it."
"Just the fundamental values that he stands for is what we hope America will shift toward," Richard Dick said.
