Ex-Sen. Gorton submits presidential electors for independent Evan McMullin

Ex-U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, a Republican luminary, is supporting independent conservative prsidential candidate Evan McMullin, urges Washington voters to write in McMullin.

Ex-U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, a Republican luminary, is supporting independent conservative prsidential candidate Evan McMullin, urges Washington voters to write in McMullin. Photo: Brendan Hoffman, Getty Images Photo: Brendan Hoffman, Getty Images Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Ex-Sen. Gorton submits presidential electors for independent Evan McMullin 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Independent conservative presidential candidate Evan McMullin is on the ballot in just 11 states, but former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton is urging Washington voters to write in McMullin on their general election ballots.

Gorton and ex-Secretary of State Sam Reed, two Republicans with a combined 52 years of experience in legislative and statewide office, turned in a list of 12 McMullin electors at the Secretary of State's office on Wednesday.

McMullin is a former senior Republican staff aide in Congress, and was a CIA counter-terrorism operative in the Middle East and South Asia. He is a Mormon, a graduate of Brigham Young University, and has caught on in Utah and other Mountain West states.

Utah could make McMullin the first third-party or independent presidential candidate to carry a state since George Wallace in 1968.

Gorton has been a mainstay of Republican presidential campaigns, twice backing Bob Dole for the presidency and actively supporting George W. Bush against the John McCain insurgency in 2000.

He has strayed from the GOP reservation just once: In 1973, then-Attorney General Gorton became one of the first Republicans in the nation to call for the resignation of President Nixon.

Since losing to Sen. Maria Cantwell in 2000, Gorton has been recognized for his service on the presidential commission investigating the 9/11 attacks, and for serving with ex-Secretary of State James Baker on a probe of what caused a disastrous explosion and fire at a BP refinery in Texas.

Of McMullin, Gorton has said: "I am deeply impressed with Evan's knowledge, seriousness and his unique background. He's the kind of leader who can unify America in a time when both major party candidates have divided it."

Donald Trump has begun to take notice of McMullin and his strength in traditionally "red" states, and to ridicule the independent candidate.

"If for some reason we lose Utah, that could have a devastating impact on the overall," Trump said recently.

McMullin has tweeted back, "Yes, you've never heard of me because while you were harrassing women at beauty pageants, I was fighting terrorists abroad."

Gorton, in a recent Spokesman Review op-ed, urged Idaho voters to support McMullin -- he is on the ballot there -- and Washingtonians to write in McMullin.

"Ignore the top lines of the presidential ballot and at the bottom of the column, write in Evan McMullin," he wrote.

McMullin is, argued Gorton, "a genuine conservative."