Independent candidate Evan McMullin may have picked his running mate — by accident

(Image credit: George Frey/Getty Images)

published 7 September 2016

Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin might have to start searching high and low for the right "Nathan Johnson" to be his VP. While McMullin — who jumped into the race in August as a conservative alternative to Donald Trump — was reportedly using that name as a "placeholder" until he picked his running mate, Politico reported Wednesday that McMullin may actually be stuck with Nathan Johnson, whoever that may be:

In all nine states where he has officially qualified on the presidential ballot, McMullin has listed a "Nathan Johnson" as his vice presidential nominee. McMullin's campaign won't provide any more information about Johnson — including which of the thousands of people named Nathan Johnson the campaign is referring to — saying he is only a placeholder until McMullin names an actual running mate.But in eight of the nine states, top election officials say McMullin's campaign can't pull Johnson's name off the ballot, and that it's "Nathan Johnson" — not whomever McMullin eventually names as his pick for vice president — that will appear on the ballot. [Politico]

McMullin's campaign declined to offer details to Politico on who this mysterious Nathan Johnson is, though they insisted that even he understood he was just a placeholder. "Nathan is a guy who's on the ballot right now with the full understanding that this is going to swap out in the immediate future," said Rick Wilson, McMullin's senior adviser and chief communications officer. "Our legal people have also had a long look at this thing and they're confident that we can do this, we can make this thing work."