SALT LAKE CITY — How much support does Donald Trump have in Utah, one of the most Republican states in the country?

Well, Utahns would only narrowly choose the national front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination over the leading Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, according to a newly released poll for UtahPolicy.com.

The poll by Dan Jones & Associates found that 33 percent of Utahns would vote for Trump compared to 28 percent for Clinton. A third of those polled said they'd vote for an unnamed "other" candidate.

The poll of 622 Utahns Dec. 8-14, 2015, has a margin of error of plus or minus nearly 4 percent. The same poll put Trump in fourth place in Utah, behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

"What it tells me is that people here are not at all behind Donald Trump," said Jason Perry, director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. "When he's just barely above her, you know there is just no support for him."

Perry said it remains to be seen whether the rest of the country will follow Utah's lead and ultimately reject the billionaire businessman and reality TV star, who currently has the support of more than a third of voters nationwide.

"Folks here do not feel they know what they're getting with Donald Trump," Perry said. "We'll see if that sentiment here in Utah is what really resonates. You can see a little bit of the flavor of that in (South Carolina Gov.) Nikki Haley."

Haley, who delivered the Republican Party's response to President Barack Obama's final State of the Union address on Tuesday, warned against following the "siren call of the angriest voices" in what was seen as a slap at Trump.

She also urged support for "properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion," countering Trump's call for barring Muslims from entering the United States in light of recent terrorist attacks.

Trump rhetoric a tough sell

UtahPolicy.com publisher LaVarr Webb said Trump's rhetoric is a tough sell in Utah.

"I think people who support Trump are looking for something that doesn't exist, a political savior who's going to solve all their problems by talking big and bragging," Webb said. "Utahns are seeing through that."

The poll, taken before Cruz's surge to lead the rest of the GOP pack, showed that other Republican contenders, including Rubio, Carson and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, would handily beat Clinton.

Trump, meanwhile couldn't muster the support of even half of the Republicans polled. Among members of Utah's dominant political party, only 45 percent said they'd vote for Trump, and 40 percent said they'd vote for that unnamed "other."

"Too boisterous"

Pollster Dan Jones has said the largely Mormon electorate in Utah already saw Trump as "too boisterous," even before he pronounced that faith should determine who is allowed into the county.

Visits to refugee camps and shelters overseas last November by Elder M. Russell Ballard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Quorum of the Twelve Apostles also had "great impact" on Utah voters, Jones has said.

Utah Democratic Party Chairman Peter Corroon said the state's Democrats "agree with our fellow Utahns that Donald Trump should be a concern for the Republican Party and for our nation."

Corroon said Trump has "offended just about everybody, whether it's women, people of faith, immigrants," and he hopes that will encourage more Utahns to consider voting for Democrats running for state and local offices.

But Corroon said he doesn't see much chance for a Democratic presidential candidate to win in Utah this year, even if the GOP nominates Trump. The last time Utah went Democratic was for then-President Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

"Politics are so polarized that I don't think it matters which candidate is on the ballot," Corroon said. "I would hope that based on what we're hearing out of Donald Trump that all Republicans would look at who the candidate is rather than a political label."

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