Poll: Donald Trump builds lead in Utah at Ron DeSantis’ expense

Image via AP.

Fresh polling from Utah shows Donald Trump expanding his lead over second-place Ron DeSantis, with Nikki Haley in a competitive third place.

The Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics survey conducted last month shows Trump with 33% support, DeSantis with 15% and the former South Carolina Governor drawing 11% support.

These are high-water marks in the Beehive State for Trump and Haley, and a new low for DeSantis, who was at 19% in the August poll.

The story of this survey has been one of consistent attrition for the Florida Governor. In March, before the formal launch of his campaign, DeSantis led Trump. He has slipped since. In August, the Governor had 19% support, just 8 points behind Trump.

Trump and Haley lead DeSantis with important demographics. Trump leads with “very conservative” voters, taking 51% support, and with both lapsed and active members of the Mormon faith. Self-defined moderate voters prefer Haley, as do voters who attended graduate school.

DeSantis has proclaimed Florida’s affinity for the state. At the Utah Republican Convention in April, he contended his home state is the “Utah of the Southeast.”

“I think underlying the success of Utah has been a commitment to freedom like Florida. Utah proves that freedom works,” DeSantis said. “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 also said 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.”

More recently, DeSantis defended Florida’s education standards regarding the teaching of slavery and its potential benefits to the enslaved during a Utah press conference where legislators were endorsing him, saying “they’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.”