UTAH (LifeSiteNews) – A former 2016 third-party challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton said he no longer wants to see Roe v. Wade reversed and will vote against pro-life legislation if he is elected to the U.S. Senate in November.
Evan McMullin is running against pro-life, conservative Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah. McMullin is running as an independent, but his views are liberal enough that the state’s Democratic Party declined to put up a candidate and instead has endorsed his candidacy.
Tonight, I pushed Senate candidate @EvanMcMullin, whose independent campaign against sitting GOP senator Mike Lee in Utah is being backed by the state's Democratic Party, on his anti-Roe views in 2016 versus his pro-Roe views in 2022.
Watch our exchange:pic.twitter.com/oAD8KqctNJ
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) May 9, 2022
During a recent interview on MSNBC, McMullin explained why he flipped his position on abortion after running in 2016 as a pro-life alternative to Donald Trump.
“As a pro-life Utahn, I’m concerned that the never-ending tug-of-war over abortion laws threatens to create a public health crisis,” McMullin’s campaign said in a statement on the news of the leaked Supreme Court Roe draft reversal opinion.
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McMullin’s campaign said he opposes pro-life laws, such as “total bans on abortion.”
“I do not think that [overturning Roe] is the way for the country to move forward on this issue,” McMullin told MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan on Sunday night. Hasan read McMullin a 2016 tweet where he said Roe should be overturned. He instead said expanding access to contraceptives, many of which are abortifacient, is the better way to address the issue of abortion.
The Senate candidate called for a “comprehensive approach” to supporting women and children and repeatedly referred to a “tug-of-war.”
He also said he would oppose a potential vote in the Senate on a national abortion ban.
Whether McMullin, if he wins, would have a say on legislation beyond a floor vote remains up in the air. He has previously said he would refuse to caucus with either the Republican or Democratic Party.
Senators must caucus with a party in order to receive a committee assignment. For example, independent Senators Angus King and Bernie Sanders caucus with the Democratic Party. “Without joining a caucus, McMullin would not have a seat at this negotiating table,” Washington Examiner commentary editor Conn Carroll explained. “Neither party is obligated to give him a seat on any committee.”
“Committee seats are valuable things in the Senate,” Carroll wrote.