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A few weeks ago, the former reporter and sometimes historian Rod Decker reminded us Utah used to be a swing state.

For decades, politics was competitive here. You had Democratic majorities in the legislature and the balance of power would shift back and forth until the 1970s for reasons we've already talked about, and you already know.

That's when Republicans took over for good.

And really, ever since then, Utah's Democrats have tried to figure out a strategy for winning

or at least trying to stay competitive and relevant.

The journalist Robert Gerke says, when you're this far behind, you have to mix it up.

Try new things like throwing your support in a Senate race, not behind a Democrat, but an independent.

After losing again and again and again, 17 straight Senate races in a row leading into the 2022 election. Democrats hadn't

won a seat, and frankly, they hadn't been very close to winning a seat in Utah. So faced with

this prospect of another failed Senate bid against Mike Lee, who was running for re-election that

year, a group of prominent Democrats decided

that they wanted to try something completely different.

Well, Senator Mike Lee officially has a rival for the 2022 midterm election, a former undercover CIA

officer.

And instead of nominating their own candidate, Democrats threw their support behind Evan McMullen.

And because I'm running as an independent and because I'm willing to stand up to party bosses of both sides,

it will mean that Utah has the deciding vote on almost every major piece of legislation that enters the Senate.

Evan was a former Republican turned independent. He had roots at BYU, had worked in the CIA.

He had run for president and done fairly well on the state.

Washington needs to be a little more concerned about what Utahans think.

He ran an aggressive campaign against Mike Lee.

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