When Ben McAdams eked out a narrow 694 vote win in November, he became the first Democrat to represent Utah in Congress since 2014. A majority of Utahns say having a Democrat as part of the state’s Congressional delegation is a positive for the state.
In our latest UtahPolicy.com survey, we asked if Utahns felt having a Democrat representing Utah in Congress.
- 55% said it would be a positive development for the state.
- Just 22% felt having a Democrat representing Utah would be negative
- 19% said they had neutral feelings about a Democrat in Washington, while 4% said they didn’t know.
McAdams has already taken steps to distance himself from the national Democratic party. He fulfilled a campaign promise by not voting for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker when he took his seat. He also joined with a group of Democrats during the government shutdown in urging Pelosi to guarantee a vote on funding President Donald Trump’s border wall if he agreed to open the government first.
As you might imagine, Republicans aren’t keen on having a Democrat as part of the Washington delegation, while Democrats and independent voters are happy with the split in party affiliation.
- 36% of Republicans in Utah said having a Democrat in Congress was a positive development. 37% said it was negative, and 24% were neutral.
- 95% of Democrats surveyed said they appreciated having a member of their party in Washington. The others were mostly neutral.
- ⅔ of independents in our survey said they felt positive about a Democrat in Washington, while just 9% said it was negative for Utah. 19% were neutral.
Survey Methodology:
Poll by conducted by Dan Jones & Associates from January 3 – 15, 2019. 822 Registered voters were interviewed. Data collection was conducted by live call center agents (42 percent landline telephone, 32 percent cellphone), and a portion of the survey was conducted via email invite from an online panel (26 percent). The margin of error for the statewide questions is +/- 3.4 percent.
