Utahns are starting to warm up to GOP President Donald Trump, but not by much, a new UtahPolicy.com poll finds.
Pollster Dan Jones & Associates’ new survey for the online political newsletter shows:
— 47 percent of Utahns have a “very” or “somewhat” favorable opinion of Trump.
— 50 percent have an unfavorable opinion of him.
— 3 percent have heard of Trump, but have no opinion of him.
— And 0 percent have never heard of him. Now that’s what’s known as high name I.D.
Trump carried Utah with 45 percent of the vote last November – so the latest poll shows a slight improvement for him since that time.
A UtahPolicy.com analysis of the results indicates that it is basically older white, Mormon, conservative, moderately educated men who like Trump, while other groups – especially women – don’t much care for him.
There are some interesting demographic breakouts in Jones’ new results:
— Most Utah women don’t like the president – clearly because of some of his sexist statements and actions that came up during the campaign.
— Men give Trump a favorable rating, 54-44 percent.
— But Utah women don’t like the president, 56-39 percent, unfavorable over favorable.
(In all of the following poll results since few Utahns don’t have an opinion of Trump, only the favorable/unfavorable statistics will be presented.)
— Younger Utahns don’t like Trump.
In the 18-24 age group, 47-53 percent, favorable to unfavorable, don’t approve of the President; 25-34-year-olds, 34-61 percent; and 35-44-year-olds, 38-59 percent.
— But the older you get, the more you like the 70-year-old president.
In the 45-54 age group, 48 percent like Trump, 47 percent don’t; 55-64-year-olds, 53-42 percent; and those 65-and-older, 57-40 percent have a favorable opinion of Trump.
— Republicans really like Trump, 71-15 percent.
— Democrats hate him, 5-95 percent.
— Political independents also don’t like him, 28-69 percent.
Those who self-identified to Jones they are “very conservative” politically really like Trump, 80-15 percent.
Those who said they are “somewhat conservative” like him, 58-38 percent.
But then the numbers go against the president – philosophically speaking:
— Moderates dislike him, 38-59 percent.
— And the “very liberal” Utahns are against him, 4-94 percent. Little doubt there.
Mormons who are active in their church like Trump – which is a bit odd since leaders of the LDS Church have issued statements against some of Trump’s more controversial stands – like banning Muslims from entering the country.
— Those who said they are “very active” in their LDS faith support Trump, 56-39 percent.
— Among those who said they are “somewhat active” in the Mormon church, 58-43 percent in favor of the president.
— Every other faith are against him; Catholics, 36-64 percent unfavorable; Protestants, 41-59 percent; and those who said they belong to some other religion, 44-57 percent unfavorable.
— Those who stated that they have no religion are against Trump, 19-80 percent.
Finally, the less educated you are, the more you like Trump:
— High school degree, favor the president, 53-43 percent.
— Two-year associate degree or a technical degree, 59-37 percent for Trump.
— Four-year college degree, 44-53 percent against the president.
— And a graduate degree, like Ph.D., law or medical degree, 34-63 percent against him.
Utah is a Republican state – all U.S. Senate and House seats in GOP hands, as are statewide offices, like governor; and the Legislature is heavily Republican.
But Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, may want to be more careful than she has been in supporting Trump.
Her 4th District constituents are against the president, 41-55 percent.
That means a Democratic, or even a Republican, challenger to Love in 2018 may make some headway if they oppose Trump – at least on some of his more controversial stands, like immigration.
Jones polled 844 adults statewide from March 22-29. The survey has statewide a margin of error of plus or minus 3.37 percent.
