GOP-Backed Independent Candidate for President Studied in Israel
Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin Image by YouTube
Evan McMullin, a Brigham Young University graduate who in Israel on a Defense Department grant, has announced that he will run as an independent in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
McMullin announced his candidacy on Monday.
He worked as an undercover operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency and later as a senior national security and policy advisor in the House of Representatives.
McMullin, 40, is unmarried and is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormon Church.
In 2011 he earned an MBA at the Wharton School of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and worked at Goldman Sachs.
McMullin’s campaign will have the support of key players in the GOP’s anti-Trump movement, Buzzfeed News reported.
“Like millions of Americans, I had hoped this year would bring us better nominees who, despite party differences, could offer compelling visions of a better future. Instead, we have been left with two candidates who are fundamentally unfit for the profound responsibilities they seek,” McMullin said in a letter announcing his candidacy.
McMullin studied in Israel while an undergraduate at BYU as a David L. Boren Scholar with the Department of Defense’s National Security Education Program, through The David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies. He called his studies in Israel “a perfect capstone to the traditional coursework I had done in Provo.”
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
