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- Mike Lee is locked in a close Senate race with independent Evan McMullin in Utah, according to a new poll.
- In the latest Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll, Lee had a slight edge over McMullin (41%-36%).
- In April, McMullin received the official endorsement of the state Democratic Party in this GOP stronghold.
For generations, Utah has been a Republican stronghold, supporting GOP presidential candidates and statewide office holders.
However, this fall’s Senate race could shake up state politics in an unusual way, as incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee faces off against independent Evan McMullin, who could shape up as a proxy for former President Donald Trump’s continued influence in the Beehive State. .
In the latest Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll, Lee had 41% of respondents, 36% supported McMullin, and 14% chose another candidate. According to the poll, 8% of respondents said they were undecided.
Lee’s job approval rating sits at 46%, 47% approve of the two-term senator’s performance and seven percent have no opinion.
The poll surveyed 801 registered voters in mid-July and had a margin of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points.
Jason Perry, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, told the Deseret News that the state “hasn’t seen a Senate race in decades.”
“Lee and McMullin both have a locked-in support base and will spend the next few months fighting hard. . . .
Independent Senate candidate Evan McMullin.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File
While Lee is looking to tap into the GOP base in what is expected to be a strong year for the party across the country, McMullin is drawing on complaints from some Republicans about the incumbent’s moves to undermine the president’s political influence in recent years.
Lee beat former state Rep. Becky Edwards and former Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spokesman Ali Essom in the GOP primary last month, but gave a large share of the vote to his opponents. He received 62% of the party’s vote, while Edwards received 30% and Isom 8%.
But unlike Republicans across the country, Edwards and Isom Lee have been criticized for not being independent of Trump, saying voters want someone who is more non-partisan.
McMullin hopes to fill that void; He got the support of the Democratic Party of the region who chose not to present his own candidate and instead threw their support behind his candidacy. (Democrats have not won a Senate race in Utah since Frank Moss was re-elected to a third term in 1970.)
While Lee remains a core part of the GOP caucus, McMullin told NBC News earlier this month that he would not align with either major party if elected to office this fall.
Lee has endorsed all of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanagh, and Amy Coney Barrett), but McMullin would only endorse Gorsuch when expressing his strong stance on Kavanaugh and Barrett.
And McMullin said he would have voted for Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was confirmed by President Joe Biden to the Supreme Court by a 53-47 margin with 50 Democrats and three Republicans.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney — who has been a sharp critic of Trump — was among a small group of GOP supporters supporting Jackson.
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