Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin held his campaign kick-off event in Salt Lake City, UT on Wednesday night. He announced that within 24 hours of announcing his campaign 60,000 people had signed up to be volunteers through his website.
Transcript (after acknowledgments):
A lot of you know me, my friends are here, but a lot of you don’t. So I want to catch those of you who don’t know me up just a little bit about who I am. I was born in Provo, UT, my parents were attending BYU and soon after I was born we moved to Washington State where I was raised in a somewhat rural area outside of Seattle. I then returned to BYU for undergrad and studied International Law while I was there I started working for the CIA and I would go back and forth from Washington to Provo, Washington to Provo, until I graduated and went undercover and went into covert operations training with the Agency.
During that time 9/11 happened, the attacks in New York, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania that killed about 3000 people. After I finished training I shipped off to South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa where I ran covert operations against terrorist organizations and other adversaries of freedom.
That experience shaped me to a great degree. I learned a lot about American grit, and what makes America special. I served with some of the greatest Americans I know in that capacity.
Now after I served there I went on to study at Wharton and went into investment banking at Goldman Sachs working with all kinds of companies helping them thrive in the global marketplace, learning what it takes for them to create jobs in the United States.
And then I went on to Congress serving as a senior advisor on national security issues, and then as a policy director for the House Republican Conference. And in that experience I learned what reforms this government, our government needs so it can be more responsive and accountable to the American people. So that it listens better to the American people.
I am so glad to see you here today. I am proud of Utah, I am very proud of you. When many others didn’t, you stood up. In the primaries you gave millions of people across the country and indeed across the world hope that America is still America. That liberty, tolerance and decency are still basic core ideals of this great nation. You see there are a few things that people of Utah know.
- We know that we are blessed to live in this beautiful country which is choice above all others.
- That compassion is more powerful than fear.
- That true leaders put the interests of others before their own.
- That the men and women of our armed services deserve profound respect for the sacrifices they have made.
- That America is a place where people of all faiths, ethnicities and nationalities are welcome.
- That we are stronger when we don’t turn a blind eye to the country’s and the world’s most vulnerable people, and we know we can defeat Islamist terrorism without violating our ideals. Indeed we must.
These ideals, these American ideals, these universal ideals inspire broad goodwill in the hearts and minds of other nations, and this leads them to cooperate with us, to work with us in times of peace and in war. This goodwill is such a vital source of American strength that we can not allow it to be destroyed by politicians or other personalities.
If this good will and our ideals are eroded in such a way our partner nations are less inclined to work with us and to follow our lead. Foreign-born investors and entrepreneurs, some of whom may start their companies here in Salt Lake City, in Impact Hub, they may choose instead of working here and developing their groundbreaking ideas in science and technology that may have a positive impact on our health care system, on our economy, on our national security, they’ll choose to pursue those dreams elsewhere. And we’ll pay a price for it.
There are a few things we know, and because we know these things we know it is our responsibility to act. There is much work to be done in the next few months. Ours will be an unconventional campaign for sure, and it will take the hearts and minds and hands of many for success. I invite all here, as well as those who are watching elsewhere, to join our cause. It is a cause of unity and it is a cause of liberty. Together we will make sacrifices. I’ll ask you to volunteer, to raise awareness through social media and person to person here and elsewhere and to donate what you can to EvanMcMullin.com to fuel our efforts. Together we will do the hard work that it is going to take to let Americans know that there is another choice.
There is another choice and I firmly believe that the time has come in our country for a new generation of leadership. Together I am confident that we will prevail in Utah and beyond. Thank you very much Utah. May God bless you and may God bless America.
