Even as a clear underdog, McMullin is making it the most competitive Utah Senate race in perhaps 30 years. It’s a remarkable test of McMullin’s unproven theory that he can topple a conservative by running a one-on-one race with no Democratic spoiler. The matchup is as much about the last six years of the Republican Party — and Lee’s place in it — as it is about McMullin’s half-court heave of a political strategy.

“I’m taking it very seriously,” Lee said in an interview. “It’s still closer than I’d like it to be.”

During a 35-minute interview, McMullin says his state deserves two Romneys and vowed that “I will be in a coalition in the Senate as I am in Utah, with other pro-democracy senators.” Yet how he’d make that work without joining either the GOP or Democratic side of the aisle is a nagging question.

Even if the Senate ends up 50-49 next year with his one vote swinging control of the chamber from one party to another, McMullin underscored that he would not caucus with either party. Since the 1950s, independents elected to the Senate have caucused with either Republicans or Democrats, according to the Senate Historical Office.