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Trump says he’s ‘having a tremendous problem in Utah’

Posted at 4:52 PM, Aug 11, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-11 19:37:13-04

ORLANDO, Fla. — In a speech given at a gathering of pastors in Orlando, Fla. on Thursday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he’s “having a tremendous problem in Utah.”

“Utah’s a different place and I don’t know if any– is anybody here from Utah?,” Trump asked. “I didn’t think so.”

Trump was addressing several hundred evangelical Christians, many of them pastors and their spouses, at the “Pastors and Pews” event. During the speech, Trump urged attendees to “get your people out to vote” for him.

A projection by polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight shows Trump has an 80 percent chance of winning Utah’s six electoral votes, but several big-name statisticians and political prognosticators have begun to paint Utah a paler shade of red.

In March, when thousands of Utahns turned out for the presidential caucuses, Trump had his biggest loss yet, receiving only 14 percent of the Republican vote, putting him in third place behind Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

Earlier this week, anti-Trump conservatives put support behind Evan McMullin, a former CIA staffer and top House GOP aide, for an independent White House bid. McMullin kicked off his presidential campaign in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. McMullin’s bid is more than a long shot, but if he gathers enough signatures to get on the Utah ballot, he could draw enough conservative votes in Utah to potentially throw the state to Clinton.