Poll: Dem challenger leading Mia Love in Utah House race

Utah Democrat Ben McAdams is leading Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) by 6 points, according to the first poll to find the Democratic challenger in the lead.

A new KUTV 2News/Dixie Strategies survey found that 49.5 percent of likely voters said they would vote for McAdams if the election were held today, while 43 percent said the same about Love.

{mosads}Other polls have shown Love and McAdams neck and neck, including a New York Times Upshot survey published last week that found both candidates at 45 percent, with 9 percent of respondents undecided.

The latest poll also found voters holding a more favorable opinion of McAdams, with 33.4 percent saying they have a “very favorable” view of him and 27.3 percent saying the same of Love.

Sixteen percent of voters reported holding a “very unfavorable” opinion of McAdams, compared to 34.2 percent for Love.

Love campaign pollster Scott Riding said in a statement to KUTV that the poll should be viewed skeptically because it used robodialing to reach voters.

“Robodial polls … have an inaccurate history in Utah,” Riding said in a statement to the news outlet. “The results of this poll are out of step with all other nonpartisan polls. This is certainly an outlier.”

The managing partner of Dixie Strategies, Brian Graham, defended the poll’s accuracy.

“Time and again, our polls have proven accurate and we have been rated one of the least biased polls in America,” he said in a statement.

The poll also found 40 percent of respondents with a “very unfavorable” view of President Trump, while 29.7 reported they view him “very favorably.”

The survey, conducted on Oct. 25 among 936 likely voters, has a 3.2 percentage point margin of error.