Joe Biden Within 3 Points of Trump in UTAH; Trump Won by 18 Points in 2016
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images, OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump holds a slim 3-point lead — within the margin of error — over former Vice President and current presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Utah, a state that Trump won by 18 points in 2016.
After weathering what is now months of bad news coverage with durable approval ratings and a reasonably close race with Biden, Trump has recently gotten a heap of bad polling news that continued Tuesday with the release of a UtahPolicy.com/KUTV 2 poll that shows Trump barely ahead of Biden, with 44 percent support to the ex-veep’s 41 percent. The poll had a margin of error of +/- three points, making this a statistical tie.
Trump won the Utah popular vote in 2016 by 18 points, but that margin was partially due to the performance of Evan McMullin, who won 21.3 percent to finish third behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The pollster identified a few other troubling data points for Trump in two of the state’s congressional districts:
The survey also shows Trump trails Biden in both the 2nd and 4th Congressional Districts, which both contain significant parts of Salt Lake City and County. In CD 2, Biden leads Trump 46-42 percent. In the 4th District, Biden is ahead 43-38 percent.
That distaste for Trump could have an impact on the hotly contested race in the 4th District. Right now, four Republicans are vying to be the party’s nominee to take on Democrat Ben McAdams in November. Former NFL player Burgess Owens is the current frontrunner in that race according to a Y2 Analytics survey, but the race is still wide open. Trump’s unpopularity could be a drag on the eventual GOP nominee in November. That might be key as McAdams barely squeaked to a win in 2018 in the heavily Republican district.
It’s curious that Trump is losing to Biden in the 2nd Congressional District, given that Rep. Chris Stewart, who represents the district, is one of Trump’s most fervent supporters in Congress. However, that is not expected to dampen Stewart’s chances to win another term as the district is rated “solid Republican” by several election forecasters.
Last week, Trump lashed out at Fox News after that network’s polling unit showed his approval cratering by 10 points, and Biden taking an 8-point lead over Trump nationally.
