Although the post guidelines preferred our political candidates not be discussed, I interpreted that as just staying away from Donald or Hillary. I am going to talk about a presidential candidate that most people have not even heard of and surely do not know what he looks like. This man is Evan McMullin. The article in the directions was all about image as a form of self-branding for a candidate. One stout difference today is the effect of social media on a campaign. While the major news broadcasts highlight the main two candidates, McMullin is flying under the radar as a conservative independent candidate.  He has spent many years as an undercover CIA field officer in the middle east fighting terrorism. This man has been trained at the highest level to not be seen, to not allow others to know his image, yet he is running for an office in which public appearance is almost everything. While this stark difference in self branding would seem to be detrimental to a political campaign, McMullin is seeking to join an exclusive group of third party candidates who have won a state in a presidential election. He is currently a top of the polls in Utah, his home state, in early voting. This sudden unheard of surge in backing possibly comes from the very difference in public appearance that McMullin possesses. When voters here a general story about an honorable and respected CIA officer they are more likely to think highly of the candidate simply because there is not very much public information available about him. In a time and age when voters get more and more info about their candidates, perhaps a candidate who is rather unknown can be surprisingly appealing. Obviously Evan McMullin has a very near to impossible shot at becoming our next president(although there are some scenarios that make this possible if no candidate reaches 270 electoral college votes), he is potentially clearing space for other less well-known independent candidates to cause a ruckus in the two-party electoral system of the United States.