Donald Trump has held onto his six-point lead over Hillary Clinton in Utah, where nearly 40 percent of early voters have already cast their ballot for the Republican presidential nominee, a new poll shows.
Among likely Utah voters in a Monmouth University poll released Thursday, 37 percent currently support Trump and 31 percent support Clinton.
Another 24 percent of voters plan to back independent candidate Evan McMullin, a native of the Beehive State who is running as a conservative alternative to Trump. Support for Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson has declined from 9 percent last month to 4 percent in the latest poll.
Trump has grown his support among independent voters by 5 percentage points since mid-October, though his lead over Clinton has narrowed since she has also expanded her support among independents by 9 percentage points, from 23 percent last month to 32 percent now.
The GOP nominee maintains a double-digit lead over McMullin among self-identified Republican voters, 56 to 34 percent, while 86 percent of self-identified Democrats back Clinton — a 6-point decline from the 92 percent of Democrats who supported her last month.
Despite recent developments related to Clinton’s email scandal and the FBI’s decision to reopen its investigation into her handling of classified information, nearly 60 percent of Utah voters believe the former secretary of state will pull off a victory in next Tuesday’s election. Only 25 percent believe Trump will win the presidency.
Aside from the presidential race, Republican Sen. Mike Lee and Gov. Gary Herbert both maintain double-digit leads over their Democratic opponents. Lee leads Misty Snow, the first transgender major party nominee for U.S. Senate, by 33 percentage points, while Herbert carries the same lead over local businessman Mike Weinholtz.
The Monmouth University poll of 402 likely voters in Utah was conducted from Oct. 30-Nov. 2. Results contain a margin of error plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
