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Meet the independent presidential candidate trying to take Utah

Evan McMullin is the independent presidential candidate trying to take Utah.

This segment originally aired on Oct, 12, 2016, on VICE News Tonight on HBO

Utah is usually a layup for Republican presidential nominees. The Beehive State, where more than half the population identifies as Mormon, has voted for the Republican presidential candidate every election year since 1964.

But Donald Trump has never found a foothold in the deeply socially conservative state. After the leaked tape featuring Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women surfaced two weeks ago, some of the first elected Republican to publicly defect from their party’s nominee were from Utah.

An October 11 poll shows the race in Utah now tied between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at 26 percent. The same poll also shows that independent candidate, Evan McMullin, is in striking distance of a Utah win, with 22 percent of the vote.

VICE News correspondent Michael Moynihan spoke to McMullin about his candidacy and why Utah is leading the revolt against Trump.