SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns rate the job performance of President Donald Trump higher than that of any of the state’s elected representatives in Washington.
A new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll asks voters in each of Utah’s four congressional districts to rate Trump’s job performance and that of its representative.
Not surprisingly, the president does worst in the 4th Congressional District, the most competitive district in the state and the only one to elect a Democrat. Still, Trump has a better approval rating than Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams among voters in the district.
The high amount of voters who aren’t sure what to make of their congressman in each of the districts also shows they might not be focused on the work they’re doing.
In addition, the survey asked Utahns to rate the state’s two Republican senators.
The impeachment proceedings and Super Tuesday combined with the lack of other options has consolidated Utahns behind Trump, said Jason Perry, director of the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics.
“I think that one should resist tendency to compare the favorable numbers of Trump to our delegation because these are two very different questions for Utah voters,” he said.
The poll also measures whether Utahns are more or less likely to vote for the congressman in their district based on his impeachment vote. Republican Reps. Rob Bishop, Chris Stewart and John Curtis voted against impeaching Trump, while McAdams voted in favor.
Rasmussen conducted the poll Feb. 22-March 1. The number of respondents in each U.S. House district varied as the did the margins of error.
Utahns in the four districts expressed about the same level of likeliness to vote for the congressman this year, regardless of his impeachment vote. The poll found voters 42% more likely to vote for Bishop, 43% for Stewart, 49% for Curtis and 44% for McAdams.
“All of them in their district ended up a little bit positive on it,” pollster Scott Rasmussen said. “I don’t think these are game-changing numbers, but it suggests like Mitt Romney’s vote on impeachment, they had a pretty good read on their districts.”
So what is each of their district’s read on them?
In the 4th District, 42% of residents approve of the job McAdams is doing, while 28% disapprove. Nearly a third, however, aren’t sure. McAdams is seen as one of the most vulnerable Democrats in Congress.
It’s also the only congressional district in Utah where Trump is upside down. The poll shows 50% disapprove of his performance and 46% approve. That could be a factor in November when voters choose between the incumbent Democrat and a Republican challenger.
Trump’s approval statewide is 55%, according to the poll.
Bishop, who is retiring from Congress after 18 years and is a candidate for Utah lieutenant governor, joined McAdams as having the lowest approval rating among the state’s four congressmen. The survey found 42% approve and 31% disapprove, while just over a quarter weren’t sure.
Rep. Chris Stewart has a 45% approval rating in the 2nd District, while 28% disapprove of his performance.
Trump’s approval rating in Stewart’s and Bishop’s districts is 59% and his disapproval rating is 39% in both.
Rep. John Curtis had the highest rating with 53% of residents in the 3rd Congressional District approving of the job he is doing. He also had the lowest disapproval at 19%, but nearly a third weren’t sure how rate him.
Also, Trump had the highest approval rating — 60% — in Curtis’ district, which includes conservative Utah County and much of rural eastern and southeastern Utah.
While the U.S. House members’ favorable ratings aren’t as high as might be expected, their disapproval rates aren’t out of proportion, Perry said. They’re not in danger of voters pushing their unfavorable ratings going much higher, he said, and are in a “safe and steady” position.
“They seem to finding a balance with the voters in their districts,” he said.
Overall, only two members of Utah’s congressional delegation received approval ratings above 50%, and one of them voted to remove Trump from office.
Sen. Mitt Romney, the only senator to vote to convict a member of his own party in an impeachment trial, has 52% approval rating, while 41% of voters disapprove.
Mike Lee, Utah’s senior senator and a staunch Trump defender during impeachment, received 48% approval among voters and 32% disapproval.
The approval rating for both senators hasn’t changed much throughout the year, Deseret News/Hinckley Institute polls show. Rasmussen conducted the latest poll of 1,000 Utah registered voters Feb. 24-March 1. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
“People aren’t spending 24 hours a day studying everything Mitt Romney and Mike Lee have to say. They have a pretty set opinion of them,” Rasmussen said.
Despite some Republican outrage, Romney’s vote didn’t have much impact on how voters view him because it wasn’t a surprise, he said.
“If Mike Lee had come out and voted for both counts of impeachment, there would have been a little bit of shock in the state of Utah,” Rasmussen said. “It might have caused some people to reevaluate him.”
