Clinton, McMullin campaigns seizing on Trump's stagnation in Utah


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SALT LAKE CITY — The battle for Utah voters in the presidential race is about to heat up even more, with Democrat Hillary Clinton deploying new campaign resources in the state, including a Washington, D.C.-based BYU graduate.

The news that Clinton is boosting her paid staff at her Millcreek state headquarters from one to six people starting next week comes as support is surging in Utah for independent candidate Evan McMullin.

Republican Donald Trump's operation in Utah, meanwhile, hasn't had an office or a paid staff for the past month, according to volunteer Easton Brady, who said he is running the state campaign from his Provo home as a volunteer.

"I'm pretty much the one in charge," Brady said, after the campaign's former paid state director was sent to Michigan and the Salt Lake office was shuttered. "I'm working day and night. We're going to win this state."

Not so fast, said Chuck Todd, NBC News political director and moderator of "Meet the Press."

Todd told the Deseret News and KSL-TV that Trump's performance in the third and final presidential debate in Las Vegas last week "cemented Trump's stagnation" among Republicans in Utah, as well as across the country.

Trump was already in trouble with voters after a tape of a conversation he had in 2005 about making sexual advances toward women surfaced earlier this month, followed by women alleging they were groped and kissed without their consent.

That particularly hurt Trump in Utah, a state where he had already acknowledged he had "a tremendous problem." Gov. Gary Herbert and other Utah GOP leaders backed off their already lukewarm support for their party's presidential nominee.

The billionaire businessman said in the debate he never apologized to his wife, Melania Trump, because the allegations weren't true, and he blamed Clinton's campaign for the women coming forward.

Trump also refused to say whether he would accept the results of the election, answering in the debate that he would "look at it at the time" and "keep you in suspense." Trump has complained throughout the race that the election is "rigged."

Now, Todd said, it's difficult to imagine Trump winning more votes anywhere at this point.

"So what does that mean for Utah? … It means those who were against him found no new reason to be for him. And if they're intent on voting down the ballot, then they're going to find a third alternative," Todd said.

A poll of Utah voters released last week by Boston-based Emerson College put the conservative McMullin on top, with 31 percent support, followed by Trump with 27 percent and Clinton with 24 percent.

Other recent polls have shown McMullin statistically tied with Trump and Clinton in Utah.

But Todd said that's not going to stop the Clinton campaign from making a play for Utah. NBC News shifted Utah, a state that hasn't voted for a Democrat for president since 1964, to the "toss-up" category last week.

"They think they have the election locked up," Todd said of Clinton's campaign. "But they are concerned about the allegations that somehow many people won't accept the results, that they will think that it was rigged."

The Democrat's campaign believes, he said, that "the larger the victory, the more expansive, the more 'blue' the map looks on election night," the better to "tamp down the chatter on whether or not this was an election held on the up and up."

Todd said he wouldn't be surprised to see Clinton air TV commercials in Utah before the election is over.

"As for Trump, I don't think he's going to pour a dime into the state," he said.

Utah Democratic Party Chairman Peter Corroon said Clinton's team "recognizes that Utah is a state that is up for grabs." The campaign has already enlisted surrogates to energize the party faithful, as well as court independent and GOP voters.

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On Friday, feminist icon and Clinton supporter Gloria Steinem, in Utah to speak at an Equality Utah event, told a crowd gathered at Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Weinholtz's office that Trump was "a con man" and reached out to the GOP.

"If there are Republicans fed up with Trump here, then we welcome you," Steinem said, warning that "it's way too dangerous to have one of our two big parties controlled by extremists."

Yándary Zavala, spokeswoman for the Utah Democratic Party, said the national party's bus tour will make a stop in Utah next Wednesday, followed by a visit Thursday from Donna Brazile, interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman.

Zavala said the new Clinton staff includes a Mormon Democrat, BYU graduate Steve Pierce, a strategist at a communications firm in Washington, D.C. Pierce has worked on Utah campaigns and for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Clinton reached out to Mormon voters in August in an op-ed for the Deseret News that included references to leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and her campaign recently formed a "Mormons for Hillary" group.

Addisu Demissie, Clinton's national voter outreach and mobilization director, said in a statement that the "campaign is on the ground in Utah to reach out and talk to new voters about Hillary Clinton and how she has spent her lifetime of work for children and families. We are thrilled with the response and look forward to talking about that message through to Election Day."

McMullin's chief strategist, Joel Searby, said despite running a "shoestring campaign" that relies heavily on social media, the 40-year-old former CIA operations officer is on track to win in Utah.

"That's our goal," Searby said.

Clinton, he said, has hit her ceiling of support in Utah, making the real fight between Trump and McMullin. "We don't accept even the notion that what we're doing is helping Hillary Clinton in Utah."

Searby said McMullin's path to the White House, which requires not only winning at least one state but also both Trump and Clinton failing to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to secure a win, has been difficult from the beginning.

But he isn't ready to give up on the race having to be decided by the U.S. House because there's no clear victor.

"We wouldn't concede that can't happen," Searby said, given how unpredictable the race has been.

McMullin is not only "competing in Utah in an historic way," Searby said, he is also "competing hard" in Idaho and Wyoming, both states with a significant share of Mormon voters.

Chris Karpowitz, co-director of the BYU Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, said while support for third-party candidates typically begins to fade as Election Day nears, that may not hold true this year.

"This is uncharted territory for Utah," Karpowitz said, because of all the attention the state is receiving from the campaigns. And as Trump's support drops nationally, it becomes easier for Utahns to back a third-party candidate, he said.

"It would have to be a historic turnaround for him to win," Karpowitz said, leaving Utah voters asking themselves, "Why not make a statement that Donald Trump was unacceptable as the Republican nominee?"

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Lisa Riley Roche

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