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SALT LAKE CITY — Ben Carson is the favorite choice of Utah voters among the Republican presidential candidates, with more than twice the support of national front-runner Donald Trump, according to a new poll.
"I find that Utahns feel that Trump is loud, arrogant and really not suitable to be commander in chief of the United States," pollster Dan Jones said. "So one reason they like Carson is his more quiet responses, his thoughtful deliberation."
Twenty-two percent of Utahns said they'd choose Carson to be the 2016 GOP nominee, while 9 percent picked Trump. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio came closest to Carson, with 11 percent, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, with 10 percent.
But 16 percent of those surveyed by Dan Jones & Associates for UtahPolicy.com said they didn't know who they'd pick. The poll was conducted Nov. 5-14 of 624 Utahns and has a margin of error of plus or minus just under 4 percent.
Trump, a billionaire real estate developer, leads in most national polls, with Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, close behind. The pair of political outsiders have dominated an outsized Republican field currently at 14 candidates.
"Trump and Carson have the national Republican Party very nervous," Jones said. Utah Republicans, however, see Carson as able to beat the Democratic front-runner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he said.
Carson holds an even stronger lead among Utah GOP voters, with 30 percent compared with 9 percent for Trump, behind both Cruz, with 14 percent, and Rubio, with 12 percent, the poll found.
Utah voters may be responding to is the emphasis Carson has put on faith. A Seventh-day Adventist, Carson regularly shares how his beliefs have shaped his life and his politics.
"Among the candidates, he's been the most prominent talking about the importance of religion to him," University of Utah political science professor Matthew Burbank said, something voters can identify with in a predominantly Mormon state.
Trump, on the other hand, has been "almost dismissive" of religion, Burbank said. In October, Trump said his Presbyterian faith was "middle of the road," but "Seventh day-Adventist, I don't know about. I just don't know about."
That's a weakness for Trump among conservatives, Burbank said, especially in Utah.
Utah State University political science professor Damon Cann said Utahns' support for Carson shows "respect for people of strong faith, generally speaking. That's a quality Utahns value."
Any negative comments about Carson's faith is "big for Utahns in the same way a lot of Utahns hoped (2012 GOP presidential nominee) Mitt Romney being LDS wouldn't be an issue," Cann said.
While the poll was conducted largely before the terrorist attacks on Paris, it's not clear how new questions being raised in the news media about Carson's foreign policy expertise might affect his standing in Utah.
"We'll have to see," said UtahPolicy.com publisher LaVarr Webb, who writes a column for the Deseret News. "As far as I'm concerned, the Paris attacks indicate how important it is for our president to have strong foreign policy credentials."
In a New York Times article this week, foreign policy advisers to Carson spoke about the difficulty the candidate is having mastering issues related to the Middle East and national security despite intensive tutoring.
Both Carson and Trump have "naive, simplistic views on foreign policy," Webb said. "I think eventually people will come to realize it's a dangerous world we live in, but we also have to take realistic approaches to the problems."
While there has been renewed talk of the possibility that Republican leaders frustrated with Carson and Trump could persuade Romney to make a third run for the White House, that doesn't appear to be something Utahns expect to see.
"There are many people who would like Romney to jump into the race," Jones said. "But they're getting convinced he's not going to. Therefore, they're really waiting to see who he officially endorses."
An endorsement by Romney would carry considerable weight among voters in Utah and other states, Jones said. Rubio, already endorsed by a number of Utah officials, including Rep. Mia Love, has often been cited as Romney's choice.
Beth Powers, the Utah organizer for Carson's super PAC, said Carson is resonating with Utah voters.
"I think it's the quality of what Carson can give us," Powers said. "I think when people are looking for somebody like Carson, they want a long-term value and not just settle for this short-term hit. Carson is satisfying a lot of people."
