Like I said in the Monmouth poll thread, I think the folks here claiming that it's "necessary" for him to get certain endorsements in order to at least finish in the top two in Utah are off the mark. The most important thing is for him to get media exposure, so voters actually know who he is. That Monmouth poll has a whopping 66% of voters having no opinion of him, yet he's still at 20% support. The ideal scenario for him is to have his strong poll #s generate a bunch of news stories about him in Utah, leading much/most of that 66% to become aware of his existence, and then for a respectable chunk of those people to decide to vote for him.
I mean, Trump is at ~70% unfavorable in Utah, so there are a lot of potential voters for McMullin to pick off. That can happen even without any advertising or endorsements.
I agree completely and am really surprised that people are so bearish on his odds. We've talked a ton about Trump or Clinton's ability to swing voters based on not wanting to vote for the other, and those two are miserably unfavorable. This guy has little dirt, is so far generally seen favorably, and his recognition can only go up. He's an "independent conservative", which should be more attractive than a Libertarian or Democrat. I think he will get at least a chunk of those establishment endorsements, but I don't buy that he
needs them.
