Andrew Yang in Utah, Endorses Evan McMullin

Andrew Yang and Evan McMullin in Salt Lake City, UT, 15 October 2022.  Photos by Joe Buchman

About 45 people attended an outdoor event with two former POTUS candidates – Andrew Yang (current co-chair of the Forward Party) and Evan McMullin (current candidate for US Senate) at Sunnyside Park, near the University of Utah campus, on Saturday, 15 October 2022.  The invitation stated, in part, “Wear your walking shoes, a water bottle and dress for comfort! It’s an outdoor day-of-action”.  IPR transcribed remarks made at the opening of the event, which appear immediately below:

YANG: Hello Salt Lake City! How are you?

(applause, cheers)

YANG: I hope you are excited to see the opening act for the next US senator from the state of Utah, my friend Evan McMullin!

(applause, cheers)

YANG: Evan and I have a lot in common including the fact that we both ran for President – you all remember that?

(laughter)

YANG: The backstory: Before our presidential runs Evan went around trying to recruit someone to run, and then eventually people all said, “Well you should do it.” And, believe it or not, I had the same thing. I also went around saying, “Hey guys, you want to try and run?” I had this big idea around trying to transform the economy, and like Evan, people ended up saying, “You should do it.” So I did it. I remember when Evan ran in 2016, he was embraced by so many people here in Utah; you got, what, 21 percent of the vote? 21.5?  22?

(Note: 2016 Utah POTUS percentages are cited at the end of this article.)

McMULLIN: Round up, round up.

(laughter)

YANG: But then Evan did not skip a beat; he started a phenomenal organization designed to try and support and reward political figures who were doing the right thing, and now this race here in Utah. The reason I am here today, this is important not just for Utah, it is important for the entire country.

(cheers, applause)YANG: What I like about Evan here is one of the great hopes for American life. This race here in Utah is, to me, the most important race in the entire country because if you travel the country the way I have, what are people concerned about? The fact that we are so polarized and divided. The fact that half of democrats think that republicans are bad people, and the same percentage of republicans think the same – that democrats are bad people, and no one knows what to do. Everyone is casting about saying, “It’s never been this bad in my lifetime. How do we find our way out of this mess?” And the answer is in this race; is in this man, this leader. And in each one of you who is here today to try and get him elected, because Evan represents a new approach to politics that transcends party, that brings people together who might not agree on everything but want a brighter future for us, our families, and our communities, and no one thought it could be done.

I also want to give an enormous amount of credit to the Democratic Party of Utah; Ben McAdams and Karen Kwan who is here with us, and the other democrats who decided . . .

(applause)

YANG: I know apparently there were some democrats who were not on board, but now they have gotten on board because now they see what everyone sees. You have a choice, a very clear choice between Evan and Mike Lee. Boooo. Boooo.

(laughter)

YANG: I have got to say – I have not been in the state that long and I say, “Mike Lee” to anyone and . . .

(laughter)

YANG: I have got to say that one of the reasons why we have this historic opportunity is – you chose your opponent well. There are a lot of people who want Mike Lee out because they know he is no leader; they know that he has become something else. But people would not think that someone like Mike Lee, in a state that is comprised like Utah is, would have a fight of his political life on his hands. Even after the democrats stepped aside, people were still dubious. People have been dubious about this man and this race from the get-go. But you can see the doubts falling away every single day, can’t you? Every bit of progress, every yard sign, every poll, every press appearance, where people listen to Evan and say, “Wow, this guy is the real deal. He’s exactly what we have been looking for. He is a reluctant politician. . .

(applause)

YANG: He is doing this out of principle, out of duty.”

Because on some level in our history, when the needs are the greatest, that is when people come together and are willing to do things they have not done before. I have met with Evan on a personal level, and Evan certainly was not hatching some scheme to run for office circa 2015. He saw what was happening in our country and said I have to do something about it. I hope you all feel that in this race over this next 23 days, we have a chance to transform American politics over the next 23 days, but it is going to need each and every one of you here in Utah. If this man loses, what are they going to say?

It can’t be done. The system is baked. It’s always going to be an R or a D. Let’s go back to our tribal warfare and throw rocks at each other, and that will be the state of American politics. But if Evan wins, what will they say?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We can do it!

YANG: We can do it; that’s right. You can have a US Senator who does not have a major party next to their name but actually just wants to do what is right for the people. And it will not just be that statement. How many senators does it take to influence or impact national politics at this point?

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: One.

YANG: One. And you are looking at him! The next Senator from the state of Utah, Evan McMullin!!

(cheers, applause)

McMULLIN: Thanks everyone for being here, and Andrew for your very kind words in support. Andrew and I both know that our politics in America are broken and that it does not have to be that way. I think that both of us in our efforts to reform our politics have been told, that can’t be done; and certainly a lot rides on this race in that regard. But I remember as we were launching this campaign, I said, and my team said, we are going to unite republicans, democrats, independents, members of the United Utah Party, and now the Forward Party too. We are going to bring everybody together. Democrats are not going to field a candidate, principled republicans will be with us as well, independents will be with us, and the United Utah Party. I know that I sounded crazy; I admit that. But the truth is we have done it; we have already done it. And the question is, how big can we make it? We have already brought together people from across the political spectrum with different political affiliations, different parties. We have found common ground and common purpose, and that is why we are now in one of the most competitive senate races in the entire country, because of that unity.

So it is possible, we are proving that. Of course if we win, then everyone will understand that it to be possible in the maximalist sense. But we have to fight very, very hard until the end. I think many of you have seen that Senator Lee is very nervous now. In fact, I think he has become quite desperate. He is sending out emails to his people saying, “I am losing” – and I think he is right.

(laughter)

McMULLIN: But we have seen over the past couple of months shifts in this race and in our polling. They have done everything they can possibly do to try to defeat us, including doctoring videos, and pushing out millions of dollars in ads that are false and include lies about me. They will stop at nothing to hold on to power. They have proven that. Senator Lee in particular has proven that he will stop at nothing; he is willing to do or say anything including betraying the Constitution in order to hold on to power for himself and his allies. We have to stand up to that, and we are. We are fighting as hard as we can but we cannot do that without you and without your support in getting out and talking to voters, knocking on doors, making phone calls, leaving literature, etcetera. Those are the most important interactions between now and Election Day, those human-to-human interactions that I and our team, even though I think that I have the best team of any senate candidate in the country, we have an amazing team, but we cannot do that on our own. We depend on all of you to help us. I know many of you have been fighting with us for a year and you have been involved from the very beginning. Others are joining at different times, but the next few weeks, that is the time that really, really matters. We can win this race but only with your support and your hard work. We are going to leave it all out on the field, and we hope that you will join us in doing so, because we will bring a great change to America if we can pull this off.

The eyes of the nation really are on us. The national media and the pundits, they said, “Oh it’s crazy what they are talking about doing in Utah.” But now they have dropped those lines, and now they come to Utah to cover this incredible thing that is happening. In fact, we are now getting Japanese media, French media, New Zealand press – now the whole world, the Germans, are now asking to come here and to learn what we are doing that is so different from everything else they see in America.

So we are giving people hope, not only here in state, but I think beyond Utah’s borders. That’s how important this is. If we prevail here, we will show the whole country that we can stand up to the broken politics of division and extremism, to the party bosses, to the special interest groups, to the extremist factions – we show that we can stand up to them and preserve our system of self-government, our democracy, and actually solve problems. Like lowering inflation, like lowering health-care costs, protecting our air and water which is a huge challenge especially for us here in Utah right now. We can solve these problems if we have a functioning democracy and if we are able to come together in finding common ground. Despite what people on the extremes tell us, I know we have far more in common than they lead us to believe. And we can show the rest of the country that is true.

I want to note a couple of other people, Jay Mac, Jay Mcfarland who is running for congress with the United Utah Party. He is running in the same way, building a cross-partisan collation. Karen Kwan who has been with us from the beginning. She also leads in this way, bringing people together, not dividing people. That’s what this collation is. We have Republicans, Democrats, Independents, the Forward Party, the United Utah Party – this is a big collation. I do not care who you voted for in the last election; I don’t care what your party membership is. If you believe in our four ideals as a country – that we were created free, that we are equal regardless of our backgrounds or what we believe, or the color of our skin – that we are created equal and therefore we have a system of government where we choose our leaders; they do not choose us. And when we vote them out of office, they go and they go peacefully.

(applause)

McMULLIN: If you agree to that, then there is a place for you in this collation. We need you. We welcome you. We can bring a great change not only to our state, but to our country with your help. So thank you once again.

The full list of Forward Party endorsements can be found, HERE.

IPR readers seeking a Forward Party endorsement for a current or future campaign may apply, HERE.

(2016 Utah POTUS results: Donald Trump, 45.5%; Hillary Clinton, 27.5%; Evan McMullin, 21.5%; Gary Johnson, 3.5%; Jill Stein, 0.8%; Darrell Castle, 0.7%; Rocky Giordani, 0.2%; Rocky De La Fuente, 0.1%.  Sources, Ballotpedia, State of Utah.)