‘Beyond Parody’: Sen. Mike Lee Mocked for Writing Op-Ed in the Third Person Endorsing Himself

Photo by Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images

Beloved Sesame Street character Elmo is well-known for referring to himself in the third person — even the @Elmo Twitter account the show created for him adopts this voice — but it’s a lot less cute when it’s a United States Senator and not a furry red Muppet speaking this way.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is facing a unique challenge this year from independent candidate Evan McMullin, with recent polling showing Lee with a narrow lead roughly around the margin of error and an internal poll released by the McMullin campaign even showing McMullin with a one-point lead.

Lee’s own internal numbers may be revealing some vulnerability for the incumbent — he went on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show last week to beg Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) to help his campaign. Romney has thus far stayed neutral and declined to endorse a candidate in the race.

As much of a spectacle as that was for Lee to go on Fox News to beg for help from his fellow Republican Senator, Sunday’s opinion page of the Salt Lake Tribune might surpass it.

The op-ed headlined “Mike Lee has earned a reputation as a principled conservative” had a byline of “Mike Lee.” It’s a short piece — only seven paragraphs comprised of less than 300 words — and adopts the overly earnest tone of a middle schooler’s book report.

“Mike Lee serves as a United States senator representing the state of Utah,” Mike Lee begins his op-ed writing about how great Mike Lee is. “Since taking office, Senator Lee has earned a reputation as a principled conservative. He believes elected officials are responsible for keeping the federal government within its constitutionally limited role.”

The op-ed continues, touting how “Lee serves on various [Senate] committees important to Utah,” “Senator Lee has fought for Utahns and their values,” and “Senator Lee has remained committed to advocating for limited government and fiscal responsibility throughout his career.”

It appears that the Tribune invited both candidates to submit op-eds. McMullin wrote one too, but his is in the first person — “like a normal person” would write, as James Surowiecki put it.

Twitter, unsurprisingly, had a field day with Lee’s Elmoesque op-ed.

https://twitter.com/Jonssonville/status/1581833504219766785?s=20&t=3qA__BgNrUlfdnRd-0xHMA

UPDATE 10:40 pm ET: At some point this morning, the Salt Lake Tribune edited Lee’s op-ed to change the byline from “By Mike Lee” to “By Campaign for Mike Lee.”

Multiple Twitter users had captured screenshots of the original article on Sunday showing the byline as “Mike Lee.”

Here is a screenshot of the current version of the article:

Screenshot via Salt Lake Tribune.

Disclosure: Sarah Rumpf was the digital communication director on Evan McMullin’s independent presidential campaign in 2016.