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Morning Must Reads for Friday, November 4, 2016

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Good Friday morning from Salt Lake City. Today is the 309th day of the year. There are 57 days left in 2016.

Evan McMullin’s fortunes in Utah appear to be fading. Americans are disgusted by the current state of politics. The numbers of Americans who have taken advantage of early voting has exploded. 

The clock:

  • Four days until the 2016 presidential election – (11/8/2016)
  • 45 days until the Electoral College meets to cast their votes for president and vice president (12/19/2016)
  • 77 days until Inauguration Day (1/20/2017)
  • 80 days until the first day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (1/23/2017)
  • 125 days until the final day of the 2017 Utah Legislature – (3/9/2017)

Ten talking points for Friday:

  1. Evan McMullin‘s chances of winning Utah start to fade as a handful of new polls show him running in third place behind Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton [Utah Policy, Deseret News, Tribune].
  2. House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan is facing a tough challenge in his re-election bid, and that could cost him his leadership spot [Utah Policy].
  3. House Minority Leader Brian King says the GOP’s support for Donald Trump just solidifies that Republicans have become “unmoored” from their traditional values as a party [Utah Policy].
  4. A new poll shows Americans are disgusted by the current state of politics. They also doubt whether either major candidate can break through the political divide following the election [New York Times].
  5. Early voting numbers this year are far ahead of where they were in 2012. About 34 million people have already cast a vote compared with 3.2 million at this same time four years ago [The Hill].
  6. Melania Trump hits the campaign trail and says she would fight bullying if she becomes the first lady. That eyebrow-raising claim led many to wonder if she had ever met her husband [Huffington Post].
  7. The State Department released 1,000 more of Hillary Clinton‘s emails that the FBI recovered from her private server, but many of them are duplicates of previous emails [Politico].
  8. Sen. John McCain says Republicans in the Senate should fight to keep Hillary Clinton from appointing Supreme Court justices that would make the court tilt to the left [Washington Post].
  9. Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams has a big lead over Republican Dave Robinson [Tribune].
  10. Bad news for Utah’s drought conditions. Experts say warm temperatures point to a “dry” winter ahead [Tribune].

On this day in history:

  • 1922 – British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen.
  • 1924 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected the first female governor in the United States.
  • 1939 – The United States modified its neutrality stance in World War II to allow “cash and carry” purchases of arms by belligerents, a policy favoring Britain and France.
  • 2008 – Democrat Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the United States.
  • 2008 – California voters approved Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage.