Trump-Endorsed Trent Staggs Chances of Beating GOP Rivals in Utah: Polls

Former President Donald Trump endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Trent Staggs on Saturday in Utah's race to replace Republican Senator Mitt Romney, but it would be a "long shot" if he won, according to recent polls.

Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has a lot of sway among his loyal base of supporters, but will it be enough to convince Republican Utahns to vote for Staggs, the mayor of Riverton, in the primary election on Tuesday since his endorsement came just days before the primary?

In a recent HarrisX poll for the Deseret News and the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, Representative John Curtis led with 34 percent of the vote among registered Republican voters while Staggs trailed with 16 percent, former Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson had 12 percent and Moxie Pest Control CEO Jason Walton with 4 percent.

Another 33 percent of voters were undecided, and when asked which way they were leaning, Curtis got even more of the vote (47 percent) while Staggs got pushed back to third place with 21 percent of support behind Wilson with 24 percent. Walton got 8 percent of the vote in this scenario. The poll was conducted from June 4 to 7, surveyed 469 likely Utah Republican voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Meanwhile, a Guidant Polling and Strategy survey commissioned by the Conservative Values for Utah PAC saw Curtis with 41 percent of support among 600 likely Utah GOP primary voters. Behind Curtis was Staggs with 14.5 percent, followed by Wilson with 9 percent and Walton with 1.5 percent. Again, 33 percent of voters were undecided. The poll was conducted between April 30 and May 3 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Curtis has gained a substantial amount of support in the weeks leading up to the primary. In a Noble Predictive Insights poll conducted between April 8 to 16, Curtis just had 27 percent of the vote among 283 registered Republicans in Utah. Still, he was far ahead of his challengers. Brent Hatch, a lawyer and the son of the late Republican Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, had 11 percent of the vote, Wilson got 10 percent and Staggs trailed with 5 percent. Walton was in fifth place with 2 percent of the vote. At the time, 41 percent were undecided. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percent.

Newsweek has reached out to Stagg's campaign via online form for comment.

Trump admitted during his endorsement video of Staggs that he is "a little bit of a long shot." However, he predicted that Staggs would "do really, really well. I think he's gonna get a lot of votes."

"He doesn't have the campaign finance that some of the opponents have, but sometimes that doesn't matter. I didn't either," said Trump, who put a lot of his own money into his 2016 campaign. "A lot of people don't, and they end up winning big."

The former president continued: "He will be a really great senator. He's very conservative. He's MAGA all the way—Make America Great Again. And he's all about America first...If you can, get out and vote for Trent Staggs for the U.S. Senate. And he will not let you down. He'll be great. He has my complete and total endorsement."

Last September, when Romney announced that he would not seek reelection for the next Senate term, he cited age as a factor. He said in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, at the time: "At the end of another term, I'd be in my mid-80s. Frankly, it's time for a new generation of leaders. They're the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in."