Voters in Utah appear to be warming rapidly to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to a new poll that shows the billionaire 13 points ahead of his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton after tying with her just last month.
The latest Dan Jones & Associates survey of registered voters shows Trump leading Clinton 43-30 percent in the Beehive State, marking a 5-point increase since voters were last surveyed in early April. Twenty-six percent of respondents in the same survey remain undecided.
Trump, who suffered a landslide loss to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in Utah’s Republican primary back in March, has also opened up an edge over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The 74-year-old socialist, who’s challenging Clinton for the Democratic nomination, held a 15-point lead over Trump last month, but now trails the de facto GOP nominee by 5 percentage points.
Trump has also seen slight gains among Republican voters in Utah, though many remain concerned about the billionaire’s candidacy. The percentage of Utah Republicans who would cast their ballot for Trump in a general election against Clinton has risen from 54 to 60 percent since last month, while the number of GOP voters who would pick Trump over Sanders has climbed 12 points.
“People’s comfort level with Donald Trump will grow,” Utah’s Republican House Speaker Greg Hughes told the Salt Lake Tribune. ”He is the unconventional candidate. He’s not the establishment’s preferred choice. He’ll have to earn people’s support.”
Trump’s steady rise in the largely Mormon state could be due, in part, to the recent endorsement of Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch. The state’s senior Republican senator told reporters last week that he “totally” supported Trump after he and several GOP lawmakers met with their party’s presumptive nominee on Capitol Hill.
“Now that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee, I will do what I can to help him run a successful campaign,” Hatch later said in the statement.
The Dan Jones & Associates survey of 588 Utah voters likely to participate in the general election was conducted May 2-10. Results contain a margin of error plus or minus 4 percent.
