Carson leaps ahead, closing in on Trump in latest Iowa survey
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has emerged as a leading Republican presidential candidate in Iowa and is closing in on frontrunner Donald Trump in the state that hosts the first 2016 nomination balloting contest.
The latest Des Moines Register-Bloomberg Politics Poll shows Trump with the support of 23 percent of likely Republican caucus participants, fol- lowed by Carson at 18 percent. When first and second choices are combined, Carson is tied with Trump.
Trump finds himself in a vastly better position than when the previous Iowa Poll was taken. He has become a credible presidential candidate to many likely Republican caucusgoers.
Trump is rated favorably by 61 percent and unfavorably by 35 percent, an almost complete reversal since the Iowa Poll in May. He finds his highest ratings among those planning to attend the caucuses for the first time (69 percent) and limited-government tea party activists (73 percent). Just 29 percent say they could never vote for him, a number cut in half since May.
Carson has quietly built a dedicated network of supporters in Iowa. In the past month, he also aired more ads than any other presidential candidate in Iowa. Carson has the highest favorability rating among Republican candidates, with 79 percent of likely GOP caucus-goers seeing him positively.
Those glowing views of Carson, who has a compelling life story and is seeking to become the nation’s second black president, could make it hard for Trump or other rivals to attack him as the campaign heats up this fall.
The poll displays the political benefit, at least for now, of not being part of the Republican establishment. When their totals are combined, Trump and Carson — two men without any elected experience — are backed by more than 4 in 10 likely caucus participants. Add former Hewlett Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, who also has never held elective office, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who is running an explicitly anti-establishment campaign, and the total reaches 54 percent of the likely electorate.
“Trump and Carson, one bombastic and the other sometimes softspoken, could hardly be more different in their outward presentations,” said J. Ann Selzer, president of West Selzer & Co., which conducted the poll. “Yet they’re both finding traction because they don’t seem like politicians and there’s a strong demand for that right now.”