Independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin is statistically tied with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the reliably red state of Utah, according to a new poll.
Trump (R) has 30 percent support among likely voters compared with McMullin’s 29 percent and Clinton’s (D) 28 percent in the survey from the right-leaning Rasmussen Reports out Monday.
{mosads}Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson takes 5 percent, followed by Green Party nominee Jill Stein, with 1 percent.
Two percent of Utah’s likely voters support another White House hopeful, and 4 percent remain undecided.
Clinton and Trump are both deeply unpopular in the state. McMullin is seen more favorably but has less name recognition.
Fifty-four percent view Trump very unfavorably, while just 12 percent see the Republican presidential nominee very favorably.
Sixty percent see Clinton very unfavorably, meanwhile, and 12 percent consider the Democratic presidential nominee very favorably.
Twenty-two percent have a very favorable opinion of McMullin while 8 percent see the former CIA operative very unfavorably.
Fifteen percent say they have not heard of McMullin, less than a month from Election Day, and 8 percent do not know enough to form an opinion of him.
Rasmussen Reports/Heat Street conducted the sampling of 750 likely voters in Utah via online and telephone interviews Oct. 14–16 with a 4 percentage point margin of error.
McMullin’s support in Utah may make him the first person since 1968 to win a state while not running as either the Democratic or Republican presidential nominee.
The Mormon former intelligence officer is uniquely positioned to do well in Utah, a largely Mormon state that has not gone to the Democrats since 1964.
McMullin has presented himself as a conservative alternative to Clinton and Trump since launching his long-shot bid in August.
Clinton leads Trump by about 6 points in the latest RealClearPolitics average of national polls.