(Donald Trump after speaking at a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday.REUTERS/Chris Keane)
Utah is rarely crucial to any presidential election.
The state has only six electoral votes and has gone for the Republican candidate in every election since 1964.
But with the entrance of independent candidate Evan McMullin, Utah is suddenly in play — and if the state goes for someone other than the Republican presidential nominee, it could change the whole election.
I spent a weekend in the deeply religious, conservative state and found voters who have become disillusioned with the Republican Party at large. About 60% of Utah's population is Mormon, and many of these voters have seemed to balk at Donald Trump's rhetoric, backed by his billionaire playboy image.
One poll in mid-October showed McMullin, a former CIA operative from Provo who is Mormon, taking the lead over both Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Beehive State. And on the eve of Election Day, the "Never Trump" candidate was at 25% support in the RealClearPolitics average.
But while McMullin's campaign has certainly sent a message to the Republican Party that it's in danger of losing parts of its base, I'm doubtful that he can actually carry the state.
For starters, while more than half of the state's population is Mormon, that still leaves a large segment of the electorate that might not have the same reservations many Mormons do about Trump.
And as it is, voter turnout in Utah has been low in past elections. Even when Mitt Romney, a Mormon who earned his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in Utah, was on the ballot in 2012 as the Republican nominee, turnout was barely above 50% among those eligible to vote.
It's possible that turnout will be higher this year considering Utah's newfound status as a battleground state.
But when it comes down to it, while many Utahns appear reluctant to support Trump, they also seem aware that casting a vote for a candidate who has such low odds of winning the presidency could tip the scale in Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's favor. And Clinton is just about as unpopular as Trump.
One Trump supporter who showed up to a McMullin rally in St. George, Utah, on Saturday said he was voting for Trump even though he would have preferred that a different candidate win the Republican primary.
"I have 24 grandkids. This is about my grandkids," the voter, who did not provide his name, said after he left the rally, adding that McMullin had "no chance of winning, pure and simple."
"This is a pragmatic decision," he added.