New super-PAC emerges to support Evan McMullin’s run for president

A super-PAC has emerged to finance the new independent presidential bid of former House Republican staffer Evan McMullin. 

The new super-PAC, called “Stand Up Together,” is being run by two veteran political operatives who have crucial experience in complicated ballot access, technology and campaign law. 

{mosads}”Co-founded by Kahlil Byrd and Chris Ashby, Stand Up America is a new Super PAC that is supporting McMullin through paid advertising, digital and grassroots organizing and events around the country,” the group said in a statement issued by its spokeswoman, Ileana Wachtel. 

“The PAC is connecting and engaging with the millions of Americans who do not want to vote for either of the two major party candidates.” 

McMullin, a former CIA operative, has worked in both the public and private sectors, at investment bank Goldman Sachs and for House Republicans. 

Most recently he worked as policy director of the House Republican Conference, and immediately before that he was on the GOP staff of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Until Monday, McMullin had a negligible public profile, but his social media comments show he’s been adamantly opposed to Donald Trump, whom he describes as an “authoritarian.” 

McMullin and his allies are working on the premise that he can benefit from the fact that Americans are historically dissatisfied with both major party candidates. 

“Evan McMullin is the candidate American voters have been asking for — a patriot who has served his nation honorably, an independent who places loyalty to America over party loyalty, a mainstream conservative who believes in classic American values,” said Byrd, co-founder of Stand Up America.  

Byrd was co-founder and CEO of Americans Elect, a group that launched a high-profile, and ultimately failed, bid to secure ballot access for a serious third-party candidate in 2012.   

Ashby is a lawyer who has advised candidates at both the state and national level and has worked with super-PACs and politically active nonprofit organizations, according to Stand Up America’s statement. 

Stand Up America will not work on ballot access but will be instead support McMullin’s campaign for president “through advertising, digital outreach, events and grassroots efforts,” the group said in its statement.