Independent candidate McMullin: We hope to compete in all 50 states

Evan McMullin has already missed more than two dozen filing deadlines to get on ballots across the country, but the independent conservative presidential candidate said Tuesday that there’s “absolutely” an opportunity to get his name on the ballot in every state.

Touring the morning talk-show circuit, the newly announced third-party challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton was interviewed by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt to introduce himself to the electorate as a candidate people can vote for — unlike Trump and Clinton, whom he cast as candidates voters are finding themselves wanting to vote against.


And he maintained that, despite not launching his campaign until Monday, that he’s a viable candidate who has an opportunity to win the White House.

McMullin, a former CIA officer and House Republican Conference chief policy director, enters the race with name ID dwarfed by a Republican reality star and a longtime Democratic politician whose husband was president, and who represented New York in the Senate and served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama.

But during stops on CNN’s “New Day” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” McMullin suggested that he won’t be limited to a write-in option for disaffected voters.

“Absolutely, it is” possible to get on the ballot in every state, he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “A lot of people misunderstand the process. There are a multitude of ways to get on ballots in the United States. We’re pursuing all of them.”

McMullin added that his team has studied the issue of ballot access for months and declared: “We will be on a broad number of state ballots across the country. We hope to be on all 50, in fact.”

On “Morning Joe,” he cited “misconceptions” and unknown details about ballot access but reiterated his plans to get on a high number of state ballots.

“There are still 20 or so states that we can petition onto,” he said. “But there are other ways to get on those ballots, and I have a very experienced team that’s been studying this for quite some time. And we intend to have broad ballot access across the country.”