So who got Haslam’s vote for president? Maybe Evan McMullin

Gov. Bill Haslam has said he won’t vote for Donald Trump (or Hillary Clinton) and will instead cast a write-in vote for “another Republican.” He voted early and won’t say who got his vote. But, just as a matter of pure speculation, the guess here is that the most likely candidate as the Tennessee governor’s choice behind the closed doors of the voting booth is Evan McMullin, who is one of six write-in candidates for president who actually filed the paperwork necessary to have their votes counted in Tennessee.

The AP today has a profile story on McMullin, a former CIA counterterrorism operative and a Utah native who appears to have a chance of carrying his home state this year, according to some polls. He’s been characterized as a “never Trump” Republican. Trump says he’s a Clinton “puppet” who’s taking votes from the GOP nominee, reports Politico.

Here’s the start of the AP story:

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Former CIA agent Evan McMullin has quickly evolved from a political unknown to a legitimate threat to become the first independent candidate in nearly half a century to win electoral votes in a presidential election.

The presidency itself is out of his reach because McMullin is only on the ballot in 11 states (including Tennessee). But he could poach enough conservative votes in Utah to squeeze past Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton and become the first non-GOP candidate to win the mostly-Mormon state since 1964. That would be a particular blow to Trump.

McMullin, 40 and a Mormon, has been embraced by many Republican-leaning voters who are steeped in Utah’s culture of courtesy and fed up with Trump’s crudeness and antics.

So who is this guy?

…He was chief policy director for U.S. House Republicans when he watched with amazement as Trump won the GOP nomination and no other conservative jumped in the race. By late summer, McMullin decided to try to give conservative voters an alternative to Trump and Clinton. Despite knowing he would endure ridicule and questions about his motives, McMullin went for it.

The whole story is HERE.