SALT LAKE CITY -- While Donald Trump's running-mate Mike Pence was in Salt Lake City Wednesday to speak to supporters in the Beehive State, a pair of independent candidates making waves in Utah say the Republican nominees don't represent conservative values.
Various recent polls have shown Evan McMullin in contention with or even leading one or both of the major party nominees among voters in Utah, and Wednesday Pence urged Utah voters not to embrace a third-party.
“I want you to tell your Republican neighbors and friends this is not the time to make a statement, this is our chance to make a difference,” Pence told the crowd Wednesday.
McMullin and his running mate, Mindy Finn, came to the Fox 13 News Studio to discuss their campaign, and they reacted to Pence's remarks and the Trump campaign overall.
"We've got to take a stand with our votes, if we don't vote for leaders who are honest and wise, who we actually want to see in office, we'll never get them," McMullin said, going on to say that he felt many Republicans outside of Utah "abandoned their principles to vote for somebody like Donald Trump in the primaries."
Citing those recent polls, McMullin said Trump and Pence can't compete effectively with Hillary Clinton, and he said that means she will likely win the presidency by a significant margin.
"So what we're saying, is, look, if that's true, then let's take a stand and build a new conservative movement that can give us actual conservative leaders," McMullin said. "If we're wrong, if the race ends up being very close, well then we have an opportunity to block Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, take this election to the House of Representatives, where then we have a chance to elect true conservatives to the White House."
The remark about taking the election to the House refers to the procedure for electing a president should no candidate receive 270 electoral votes.
Mindy Finn fielded a question on Donald Trump's treatment of women.
"He doesn't respect people generally, he's shown he doesn't respect women in the way that he's spoken about them, objectified them, even those who have come out now and said he preyed upon them, he just completely washes them away and insults their looks," she said.
Finn said Trump has spent the campaign disrespecting everyone who doesn't look like him, citing his remarks regarding Hispanic people, those with disabilities and those with different religious beliefs.
McMullin also addressed the idea of people voting for Donald Trump out of a sense of party loyalty.
"And it's so incredible that Donald Trump and Mike Pence, they don't actually share our conservative values—by virtue of the way they treat people—yet somehow they think they own our votes, and I object to this idea, you know: You earn a vote, you don't own a vote."
See the video above for the full interview with McMullin and Finn.
