Retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson has pulled to within 4 points of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump, a new poll shows.
In the New York Times/CBS News survey released Tuesday,
Trump maintains the lead of the presidential pack, with 27 percent support. But Carson is within striking distance, at 23 percent, which is within the margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points.
Carson's rise compared with his polling at 6 percent support in the pre-Aug. 6 debate Times/CBS News survey; Trump was at 24 percent in that earlier poll, showing Carson's gains the most significant in that time frame, the poll shows.
Far behind the leaders were former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, all tied for third place with 6 percent.
Bush's support, however, has plummeted from the 13 percent he got in the August Times/CBS News survey – while Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker finished with just 2 percent, down from his previous 10 percent support.
The declines in support for Bush and Walker were the largest in the survey, the poll shows.
In other findings:
- Carson drew more support from college graduates than Trump, while men, evangelical voters and those without a college education were more likely to favor Trump.
- Carson is the only candidate to whom Trump would lose a theoretical head-to-head matchup.
The poll's release comes a day before the second Republican presidential debate in California, where Trump will retain center-stage, but Carson will be afforded a bigger spotlight.
A Monmouth poll of Iowa also puts the pair in a statistical dead-heat.
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