U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney holds a solid lead over other would-be Republican hopefuls for his seat among those with a preference at this early stage, according to polling numbers released Thursday.

A larger chunk of voters, though, are still undecided, a potential sticking point for a reelection bid by the incumbent. Romney’s seat comes up for election next year and a lot of jockeying is still going on among potential hopefuls.

According to a new poll by polling firm Noble Predictive Insights, Romney garnered 30% backing from the registered Republicans surveyed last month followed by 13% support for Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, identified last year as a potential Senate candidate by Politico. Romney has said he’s still mulling whether he’ll seek a second term in 2024 elections while Reyes hasn’t said much, if anything, about seeking the Senate post, notwithstanding last year’s Politico report.

Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson, who’s exploring a possible U.S. Senate bid, mustered 5% backing in the poll, same as Utah Sen. Mike Kennedy. Romney walloped Kennedy in the June 2018 GOP primary for the post, the prelude to his election to the Senate the following November.

Notwithstanding the Romney support in the poll, he’s a controversial figure among more conservative GOPers due to his criticism of former President Donald Trump. As such, Noble said Thursday that the 39% chunk of undecided voters represents “a sizable bloc capable of propelling any candidate to the nomination if they coalesced around one person.”

Mike Noble, the Noble Predictive Insights chief executive officer, further noted the net favorable rating Reyes received from undecided voters compared to Romney — plus 20 percentage points versus minus 49 points. The figures represent the percentage point difference between those who favorably and unfavorably view the two candidates.

“Looking at favorability — particularly among those undecideds — is telling in this race because that persuadable undecided group is a plurality of GOP voters right now,” Noble said in a statement. “They haven’t chosen a candidate yet, but they really like Reyes and really, really dislike Romney, and people are typically going to vote for who they like best.”

Regardless of the polling figures, Wilson has support among GOP politicos. He issued a statement last week listing 63 Utah legislators who back him. That represents three-quarters of the GOPers in the Utah House and more than two-thirds of Republicans in the Utah Senate.

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