It’s easy to forget how many prominent Republicans there are in Utah or, in Mitt Romney’s case, who are very influential in Utah. There’s former senator Bob Bennett and the two sitting senators, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee. There’s former governors Jon Huntsman Jr. and Mike Leavitt. There’s Utah’s current governor, Gary Herbert. As a group, they seem pretty disenchanted with Donald Trump. If a recent Y2 Analytics poll is correct, mainstream Utahns are feeling the same lack of enthusiasm. Apparently, only 11% are planning to vote for The Donald.
There’s also the other poll everyone is talking about today. That’s the Deseret News/KSL poll that shows Trump losing Utah to Bernie Sanders 37%-48% and losing to Hillary Clinton (within the margin of polling error) by a 36%-38% margin.
It’s doubtful that Trump helped himself by traveling to Salt Lake City and asking the crowd if Mitt Romney is really a Mormon.
I don’t put a lot of stock in the Deseret News poll, but it seems clear that Trump has some kind of Mormon problem. It’s probably his complete lack of moral rectitude the explains it, but your guess is as good as mine.
