If the 235,000 registered Democrats in Utah joined with the 480,000 unaffiliated voters and 93,000 members of minor parties, they still wouldn’t outnumber the state’s 880,000 registered Republicans. Utah was turning into a one-party state even before the Reagan revolution in 1980. Republicans have won every election for governor since 1982 and for U.S. senator since 1970.
Evan McMullin,
a former Republican running for Senate as an independent, wants to change that. Once the Democratic Party decided this spring to back Mr. McMullin in lieu of putting up its own nominee, this year’s Senate race in Utah boiled down to a numbers game: Do Democrats, centrist and left-leaning independents, and anti-Trump Republicans add up to more than the populist, conservative and partisan Republicans committed to two-term incumbent Sen. Mike Lee?
The 2016 election makes such an outcome look possible. Mr. Lee was easily re-elected that year, but Mr. McMullin ran for president as an anti-Trump independent. Although Mr. Trump carried Utah, he received only 45.5% of the vote.
Hillary Clinton
and Mr. McMullin combined for 49%, with the balance going to minor-party candidates. The 2020 results proved less promising: Mr. Trump beat Joe Biden by more than 20 points.
“I’m running because our politics are broken and our country’s coming apart,” Mr. McMullin said in an interview. For his part, Mr. Lee insisted, “From the time I was 10 years old, I’ve been a student of the Constitution, and whether voters agree with me or not” about any particular issue, “they know that I know the Constitution.” He added that his “sole purpose is to keep the federal government in its lane.”
Missing in the race is much policy difference. “As I travel the state, I hear about three issues more than all others combined,” Mr. Lee said. “The top one is inflation, and the second one is inflation. And the third one is also inflation. . . . Inflation has hit Utah especially hard.” Mr. McMullin makes the same point: “Economic issues are really the most important. We’re experiencing inflation in Utah that’s worse than most other states.”
On abortion, gun control, student-debt repayment and even immigration, the candidates’ declared positions are similar. To get to any meaningful differences in policy, voters have…
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