Just another indication how much Utahns don’t like Donald Trump: A new UtahPolicy poll shows that he barely beats Hillary Clinton in a presidential head-to-head in the Beehive State.
And we all know how much Utahns dislike Clinton.
So the fact that she comes close to Trump in very Republican Utah is a real strike against him here, finds pollster Dan Jones & Associates in a new survey.
When Clinton is matched against GOP presidential candidates Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; and retired doctor Ben Carson, all of those Republicans squash Clinton here, Jones finds.
Clinton, the former First Lady, U.S. senator and Secretary of State, leads her main Democratic challenger Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by double digits in national polling. It’s likely she will be the Democratic Party’s nominee.
The Republicans are up in the air – but Trump leads in national polls.
In a new Utah head-to-head survey Jones finds:
— In a Trump/Clinton race the controversial Trump leads 33 percent to Clinton’s 28 percent. A third of Utahns said they would vote for someone else for president, but who that could be is unclear.
Six percent were undecided.
Clinton fails badly against other GOP candidates.
— Rubio beats her 48-21 percent, with 25 percent saying they would vote for some other candidate and 6 percent don’t know.
— Carson beats her, 52-23 percent, with 21 percent naming someone else and 4 percent don’t know.
— Bush beats her 47-22 percent, with 27 percent wanting someone else and 5 percent don’t know.
If you look only at Utah Republicans, one would expect the GOP nominee to win big against Clinton.
All do.
But Trump is the only one who would get less than 50 percent support among his own Utah Republicans.
Jones finds that 45 percent of Republicans would support Trump, 8 percent Clinton.
A whopping 40 of Republicans said they would vote for someone besides Trump or Clinton although who that may be is uncertain. Seven percent of Republicans don’t know.
Clinton sweeps the Utah Democratic vote, getting above 80 percent of her own party’s vote in each match-up.
Political independents are split. Their vote goes to Rubio, Carson and Bush if they are up against Clinton.
But in a Trump/Clinton match-up, the independents pick Clinton, 34-27 percent.
Thirty-five percent of independents said they would vote for someone besides Clinton or Trump, and 3 percent don’t know.
Trump has never been very popular here.
But in the last several months the Deseret News – owned by the LDS Church – ran an editorial criticizing Trump.
The newspaper never takes candidate stands; the editorial was rare to say the least.
After Trump had called for the U.S. to block all Muslims from coming into the country temporarily, the LDS Church issued a statement criticizing that stand, republishing a quote by LDS Church founder Joseph Smith on welcoming all religions into Mormon-run towns.
Jones finds that in a Trump/Clinton match-up, “very active” Mormons are clearly of two minds.
— Only 34 percent of active Mormons support Trump, 18 percent support Clinton and 42 percent said they would vote for someone else for president.
Jones did not include Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the head-to-head match-ups. The poll was conducted in early December, and Cruz had not yet started to make his run gaining on Trump.
Cruz will be included in future similar Jones polls.
Jones questioned 622 Utah adults from Dec. 8-14; margin of error is plus or minus 3.93 percent.
