Photo: The Canadian Press

Two months after he jumped into the presidential race as a political unknown on the fringe, independent candidate Evan McMullin is surging in the polls in Utah and drawing large crowds at rallies as he becomes the conduit for fed up conservative voters.

The Republican stronghold of Utah is suddenly a toss-up state, with polls showing McMullin closing in on Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. It means that Utah may do what seemed unthinkable: Elect a non-Republican presidential candidate for the first time since 1964.

Though McMullin is only on the ballot in 11 states, there's even talk of the 40-year-old becoming president in a wild, exceedingly unlikely scenario in which neither Trump nor Clinton gets enough electoral votes and Congress is left to decide.

McMullin's stunning ascent into relevancy has everyone asking: Who is this guy?

Born in Provo, Utah — the heartland of Mormon country — McMullin spent his childhood in a rural area of Washington out of Seattle. He did a two-year Mormon mission in Brazil and then returned to Utah to earn a degree in international law and diplomacy at the Mormon church-owned Brigham Young University.

He spent 11 years in the CIA doing counter terrorism work before leaving the agency to get a master's in business administration from the Wharton School of Business and have a brief stint in investment banking. He later became a national security adviser for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

He was working as the chief policy director for U.S. House Republicans as he watched with amazement as Trump won the GOP nomination and no other conservative jumped in the race. By late summer, he realized he would have to run to give conservative voters an alternative to Trump and Clinton. Despite knowing he would endure ridicule and questions about his motives, McMullin went for it.

"We believe it's time in this country for a new conservative movement," McMullin said. "That would be a conservative movement that's welcoming to people of all races and religions... It's a conservatism that is compassionate and wants to help people and understands people's struggles and help them through these struggles."