Story highlights Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were tied at 26% in ruby-red Utah

Trump's path relies not only on keeping all the states that Mitt Romney won in 2012, but also Pennsylvania

(CNN) Donald Trump cast himself in almost messianic terms Thursday in Florida, describing the presidential race as "a struggle for the survival of our nation" and vowing to win the White House despite all the "slings and arrows" being hurled in his direction.

But 25 days before the election, Trump's path to the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency is looking more and more impossible by the day, as states he once said he'd flip from blue to red increasingly slip out of his reach. Meanwhile, reliably red states threaten to turn purple.

Trump's odds of a win were spiraling downward days before the 2005 "Access Hollywood" recording that surfaced last week and depicted him bragging about his ability to grope women as a perk of his celebrity. Since then, his support has collapsed -- particularly among women. A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed Clinton with a 9-point lead and a new national Fox poll released Thursday night that had Clinton at 45% and Trump at 38% in a four-way race.

In the most stunning development of the week, Trump and Clinton were tied at 26% in ruby-red Utah, with virtually unknown independent candidate Evan McMullin closing in on third place with 22%, according to a survey from Y2 Analytics.

"He's at a point where he's trying to draw an inside straight now by campaigning primarily in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina," said veteran GOP pollster Whit Ayres. "He is well behind in Pennsylvania; he appears according to the latest polls to be effectively tied in North Carolina and Ohio; and he's behind in Florida."

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