SALT LAKE CITY — Just days before Tuesday’s election, a new poll shows Democratic candidate Doug Owens is sweeping independent voters in the race for Utah’s 4th Congressional District–but is it enough to get him to the finish line?
The new numbers released by UtahPolicy.com Thursday afternoon show the 4th Congressional District race is closer than ever. Only 5 percentage points separate Owens and Love.
“It’s extremely close,” said Managing Editor Bryan Schott for UtahPolicy.com. “Our pollster Dan Jones told us it’s probably one of the closest races he’s seen at this point in the campaign.”
The poll puts Love ahead with 48 percent, but not only is her democratic opponent gaining ground at 43 percent, Owens is closing the gap.
Schott said he’s picked up a significant amount of steam in the last few weeks, and it’s not within his own political party.
“He’s picked up 7 percentage points from the independent voters,” Schott said. “The other demographics, men, women, Democrats, Republicans; they’ve all remained the same over the last few weeks, so the movement we’ve seen is with independent voters.”
The new numbers were released just hours after a KSL Radio debate between Love and Owens. The candidates discussed some familiar subjects: gridlock in Washington, gun rights and Love’s position on federal student loans.
“I think that it would behoove us all to get a clear answer on whether or not my opponent would like to do away with student loans,” Owens said.
“I do not want to get rid of student loans,” Love said. “I want to have actually more options for student loans. I want to get rid of the federal government monopoly on student loans. That’s very clear.”
“This is crunch time for both campaigns, and this is going to be about who has the better ground game this time,” Schott told FOX 13 News. “He’s catching fire clearly, but is there enough time, that’s the question that remains to be seen.”
The margin of error in the UtahPolicy.com poll is about 5 percent.
