I’ve been saying it, over and over.

If there were any year, any atmosphere that made it ripe for a third party to rise, those conditions are now.

Nobody really likes either of the top two party candidates, except for little pockets of insanity on both sides.

When ex-CIA agent, Evan McMullin stepped up to run as a conservative Independent in August of 2016, few took him seriously.

Maybe they should.

Independent candidate Evan McMullin has surged past GOP nominee Donald Trump in Utah, leading him 31-27 among likely voters in a new poll.

Hillary Clinton lagged behind both Trump and McMullin in this latest Emerson College poll, with 24%.

McMullin trailed Trump by 1 percentage point, 30-29, among likely Utah voters in a Rasmussen Reports poll released earlier this week. Clinton finished third, at 28 percentage points, in the Rasmussen poll too.

It’s unlikely that McMullin could ever get 270 electoral college votes, but he has stated that that’s not the plan.

McMullin, who is now beginning to create a buzz, as he travels and speaks in different town hall settings, is working more of a long game strategy.

He hopes to win just enough states to prevent either Clinton or Trump from getting to 270 electoral college votes, forcing the decision to the House, where one of the top three vote getters will be chosen to take the office of POTUS.

Utah is one state, and he hasn’t won, yet, but his rapid climb should cause some skeptics to perk up and maybe listen to what he’s offering, just a little closer.