Wharton graduate announces independent presidential bid to oppose Trump

Another Wharton graduate has entered the 2016 presidential race.

Evan McMullin, a former chief policy director for Republicans in the House of Representatives who received an MBA from Wharton in 2011, joined the race on Monday, Joe Scarborough of MSNBC first reported.

Touting himself as an independent, conservative alternative to Trump, McMullin took to Twitter to formally announce his run for the highest office in the nation. In a series of tweets, McMullin espoused the need for a real conservative agenda in Washington, stressing that ordinary Americans have “lost faith in both parties” and that “it’s time for a new generation of leaders.”

In announcing McMullin’s run, Scarborough tweeted that the party official had “the backing of key $$ contributors in the Republican Party.” BuzzFeed, citing anonymous sources, also reported McMullin’s bid for president. A website hosting donations for “Evan McMullin for President” launched shortly after.

“In a year where Americans have lost faith in the candidates of both major parties, it’s time for a generation of new leadership to step up,” McMullin said in a statement to ABC News. “It’s never too late to do the right thing, and America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can offer us. I humbly offer myself as a leader who can give millions of disaffected Americans a conservative choice for President.”

While he has no prior experience in elected office, he has worked — at various times — for the Central Intelligence Agency, as a deckhand on a fishing boat in Alaska, for Goldman Sachs and as a volunteer refugee resettlement officer for the United Nations.

House Republican Conference spokesman Nate Hodson told Politico, "The House Republican Conference has zero knowledge of [McMulin’s] intentions." He is no longer employed by the House Republican Conference, Politico reported.

McMullin is not the first Wharton graduate to join Trump in the presidential race. Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig, a 1983 College and Wharton graduate, also briefly joined the political fray as a candidate drawing attention to campaign finance regulations. 

McMullin visited campus as recently as last spring. On May 26 he spoke at an event hosted by Penn in Washington, where he discussed the "past, present, and future of the Republican Party." An excerpt from his speech, posted by Penn in Washington, is available here:

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