Poll: Ron DeSantis narrowly trails Donald Trump in Utah

A new poll from Utah shows that while the race is competitive, Donald Trump is still ahead of Ron DeSantis, though neither is close to majority support in the iconoclastic Beehive State.

The survey from the Hinckley Institute and Deseret News shows Trump with just a 5-point lead over the Governor, 29% to 24%. Former Vice President Mike Pence is the choice of 6% of the 495 registered voters polled, with 4% support for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

Other names are further back still, including Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who has no support.

The survey was in the field June 26 through July 4, and its release seems timed to coincide with the Governor’s visit to the state, where he is collecting endorsements from more than a dozen Utah legislators, including Senate President Stuart Adams, who called DeSantis a “strong conservative leader.”

DeSantis has enthused about Utah like no other Florida Governor in history ahead of this trip to the state.

At the Utah Republican Convention in April, the Florida Governor contended his home state is the “Utah of the Southeast.”

“Utah is one of the best governed, best-performing states in the United States. You have a sound economy, you promote a good business environment, you stress the importance of education, you have fiscal and budgetary stability and you have safe communities,” DeSantis contended.

“And I think underlying the success of Utah has been a commitment to freedom like Florida. Utah proves that freedom works,” DeSantis added. “Now over the last few years since I’ve been Governor, people have looked to Florida for leadership in a variety of different ways.”

DeSantis added that he “was recently visiting with some folks in Iowa and people said, you know, Iowa, they’re really the Florida of the Midwest with all the conservative stuff they’re doing. Well, let me just tell you maybe it’s a little secret, but it might just be that Florida is the Utah of the Southeast.”