Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton by 15 points in Utah, according to a a Dan Jones & Associates poll released Monday.
Republicans had become concerned Trump could lose the normally strong red state when reliable party voters seemed suspicious of Trump’s conservative credentials.
According to the poll, Trump received 39 percent while Clinton picked up 24 percent of support from likely voters surveyed. The numbers are little different than what was has been reported since June and July.
Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson received as much as 16 percent back in July from the same poll but later fell back to 13 percent presently and that may be a result of independent candidate Evan McMullin’s entry into the race.
McMullin has nine percent, while Green Party candidate Jill Stein received zero percent of support in the poll and six percent mentioned another candidate while 7 percent claim they are still undecided.
According to Utah Policy, McMullin’s presence in the race did not hurt Trump but, in fact, harmed Johnson’s standing the most.
McMullin’s campaign plan is to deny both Trump and Clinton the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the White House. If this happens, the House of Representatives would vote for president, where he believes he could win. However, McMullin must win states, so he can win electoral votes and his chances of doing so are currently slim to none in Utah.
Trump’s running mate Mike Pence visited the Beehive State in the beginning of September to shore up the party’s voters, while Clinton counted on California Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee to campaign for her in the state.
Pence told attendees at a campaign stop in the state that Trump is a “good man” who shares “the ideals and values of a vast majority” of people in the state,” The Deseret News reported.