Ben Carson moves ahead of Donald Trump in national GOP poll as Iowa lead grows
Ben Carson has taken a lead nationally in the Republican presidential campaign, moving ahead of Donald Trump for the top spot. Carson holds a 26-22% lead over Trump, a lead that is within the margin of error. Carson’s lead in Iowa has reached 14 points.
Trump is out of the lead for the first time in months, according to a New York Times/CBS News survey released on Tuesday.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida received 8 percent while former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, are each the choice of 7 percent of Republican primary voters. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio each received support from 4 percent of those surveyed.
The survey is the first time that Trump has not led all candidates since The Times and CBS News began measuring presidential preferences at the end of July. The third GOP debate is set for tomorrow, so all eyes will be on Carson and Trump.
Seven in 10 of those who expressed support for a candidate said it was too early to say for sure who they would support. Just 28 percent indicated that their minds were made up.
More than half of the Republican primary voters surveyed said they were now paying “a lot” of attention to the campaign, essentially unchanged from a CBS News survey in early October.
According to the Monmouth University poll released Monday, Carson is leading Trump 32% to 18% among likely Republican Iowa voters.
Trump has begun to attack Carson on the trail as the retired neurosurgeon rises in the polls and challenges Trump’s front-runner status, though the mogul continues to lead nationally. Trump maintains that he only “counterpunches,” but Carson has not been making Trump a focal point of his campaigning in recent weeks.
“Trump’s support has eroded in a number of key areas, with the beneficiary being another outside candidate. One question is how secure Carson’s new found support really is,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute in West Long Branch, NJ.
“While the leaderboard positions have changed, the outsider candidates still dominate this race. The GOP’s leadership may hope that an establishment figure will emerge, but that may not happen while their voters remain dissatisfied with the party as a whole,” said Murray.