He served as chief policy director for the House Republic Conference in the U.S House of Representatives. McMullin was also a CIA operations officer as well as an investment banker and a volunteer refugee resettlement officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Jordan.  In 2016 he announced that he was running in the 2016 election for President of the United States as an independent candidate backed by an organization called Better for America. He is a self-described conservative alternative to the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as well as the Republican nominee Donald Trump. According to Emerson College, McMullin is the favorite to win his home state of Utah.