Just a quick update so you guys don't have to search the internet.
1) McMullin is now on the ballot in Colorado, Minnesota, and Arkansas, and I believe he has turned in petitions in Utah. In at least Minnesota and Arkansas he is leveraging existing parties who had already achieved ballot access and made him their nominee.
2) McMullin has been on the Glenn Beck show and gotten very favorable treatment.
3) McMullin’s website now has an issues page: www.evanmcmullin.com/… Most issues get a paragraph, but it is clear he is a generic sane-ish right winger. He literally talks about “subsidize[d] abortion on demand” as though that’s a thing. Much of it is just rah-rah, but he does say that the VA is a problem, believes in state’s rights, thinks that the 2nd amendment is an unlimited blanket guarantee you should be able to buy any gun you want, etc.
4) McMullin has laid out a strategy where he’s aggressively pursuing petitions as there are numerous states that have 8/15 deadlines he thinks he can meet, and he’s planning lawsuits to get on the ballot elsewhere.
Why I'm bringing this up — this guy has the same positions as every right-winger who was running for president just minus the obvious racism. In his kickoff speech linked below, he actually sounds sane. Says that we should treat immigrants and people of other faiths fairly. Same sorts of things George W. Bush used to say. I can see why the Bill Kristols and Glenn Becks of the world are tickled pink that he’s on the ballot. So if some moderate Republican you know decides that they are going to vote for McMullin — remember he’s only moderate compared to Trump. That’s the risk here — that Trump makes the normal Republican crazy look sane and decent. Personally, if you forced me to choose a Republican for them to vote for, I’d rather a disaffected Republican vote Gary Johnson than McMullin. Johnson has real executive experience and would make a better president. Also, I don't know that we should be happy that this guy is out there. Anything that brings Republicans out to the polls hurts us down ballot. We need Trump to lose and the Republicans to be routed. I told my wife same thing that many of you have said — next candidate is going to have the same views as Trump with more polish, unless we can cut all the heads off of this hydra and let a real center-right party be born out of those ashes.