The soft-spoken Dr. Ben Carson has jumped a Bush and trampled a Walker to become the only Republican candidate to run even close to boisterous billionaire Donald Trump in the latest national poll for the 2016 GOP presidential race.
Carson, best known previously for being first neurosurgeon to separate twins conjoined at the head, is now in the best position of all candidates to separate Trump from the lead. The New York Times/CBS News poll shows Trump maintaining his lead with 27% -- up from mid-July's 24% -- while Carson was catapulted from 6% in July to 24% in the September 15, 2015 release.
Another headline is the dramatic collapse of Jeb!, once the heir apparent to the throne previously held by father George H.W. Bush and brother George W. Bush. The former Florida governor's national support has been more than halved in the past two months of campaigning. Bush dropped from a second place 13% to just 6%, were he shares a distant three-way third-place tie with fellow Floridian Marco Rubio and Arkansas' favorite son Mike Huckabee.
Scott Walker has almost fallen off the radar from his July third place 10% to a meager 2% in September for the Wisconsin governor.
The 11 other active Republicans follow with Ted Cruz at 5%; Carley Fiorina at 4%; John Kasich and Rand Paul with 3% each; Scott Walker at 2%; Rick Santorum and Chris Christie barely avoiding zero status with 1%; and Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal and Jim Gilmore are asterisks to the poll with less than one-half of one percent.
Read Full Summary of CBS News-NYT-GOP-poll Sept 15 2015.pdf
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