Ben Carson is definitely an “outsider.” He’s never run for public office. He is not a “Beltway insider” nor a career politician. There are few, if any, known lobbyists or big business interests pulling his strings. Within the ranks of the GOP, he does not fit within any prescribed characterization or historic image so familiar to American voters.
And now he’s leading the pack—at least in Iowa. A recent poll conducted by Monmouth University finds Carson and Donald Trump tied for the lead among likely Republican voters who will caucus five months from now to gather delegates in hopes of replacing a Democrat in the White House. The poll asked Iowa Republicans who they would support in their local caucus, and Carson and Trump each garnered 23 percent of favorable responses. These numbers are far ahead of the next tier of candidates led by Carly Fiorina at 10 percent; no other GOP candidate in Iowa reached double digits in the poll.
The ‘other’ conservative
It has been an amazing race for Carson, 63, the retired neurosurgeon with the soft voice and calming demeanor. He has vaulted 15 points in just one month in the Hawkeye State; a majority of Iowa Republicans—56 percent—say they prefer a White House nominee with no political pedigree. Well, that’s Carson to a tee. And although 30 percent of those polled reportedly say they are “locked in” with Trump (compared with 22 percent for Carson), the noted author and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom leads Trump 25 percent to 16 percent among those likely voters whose choice on Caucus day would reflect a simple “toss up” decision. These persons represent the still undecided Republican voters who could easily select Carson once they step into the voting booth on Feb. 1, 2016. A victory in Iowa could establish Carson as the front-runner in the following two weeks as New Hampshire and South Carolina host their respective primaries.
“We are clearly happy with the survey because it tracks with the enthusiasm that we see as Dr. Carson gathers huge crowds across the country,” said Deana Bass, Carson’s press secretary. “This campaign is a marathon, so we’ll continue working hard and reaching out with a grass roots campaign because Dr. Carson knows what’s at stake … our children’s future.”
Some political pundits believe that Carson’s appeal stems in part from his devout, conservative principles, but mostly because he’s never been part of a contact sport like politics. Shortly after announcing his candidacy in May, Carson said that because family, friends and supporters kept “pushing” him into politics, “I just said ‘Lord, if you want me to do it, you just open the doors. And if you open the doors, I’ll walk right through.’” Since then he has captured the attention of the voting public in ways unexpected for a political rookie. The media is taking a closer look each week at the Carson campaign which so far has addressed the prominent issues within the Republican party base which has traditionally included opposition to the Affordable Care Act, as well as same-sex marriage, abortion, increased federal spending and unchecked immigration.
A rookie takes on the pros
On Aug. 24, Carson attended the “Faith and Freedom BBQ” in Anderson, S.C., and reportedly faired well against more seasoned politicians such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
Carson roused the crowd with uncharacteristically aggressive rhetoric about Islamic State militants. “The people who want to destroy our way of life cannot be defeated by dropping an occasional bomb in the desert. The United States must use everything at its disposal whether that be economically, military, overt and covert to absolutely destroy them first.”
A few days later in Little Rock, Ark., he began to eclipse the headline-grabbing rhetoric of Trump and joked about the lack of attention his campaign had received since his campaign began. “There are so many things we can do,” he told a throng of more than 2,000 supporters at the state capital. “I’ve written about them, and I’ll continue to write about them and talk about them. I just hope we’ll get a chance at the next debate to actually talk about them.”
Carson was referring to he and other GOP candidates being overshadowed by Trump in the first debate early last month, when the famous business mogul and reality TV star dominated in every way both in media coverage and the amount of speaking time. Trump consumed 11.5 minutes of speaking time, while Carson got about half as much time to speak (about six minutes). The end of the debate turned out to be Carson’s saving grace: “I’m the only one to separate Siamese twins … the only one to operate on babies while they were still in the mother’s womb, the only one to take out half a brain—although you’d think, if you go to Washington, that someone had beat me to it.”
Shunning ‘special-interest’ groups
Some voters may see Carson as the “anti-Trump card” who may share some of the philosophy of the often boisterous billionaire, but has a significantly more measured and diplomatic tone when addressing pressing issues. While in Arkansas, Carson cast himself as a candidate not beholden to the “1 percent” or special-interest groups, receiving lengthy applause for the line: “I think the only special-interest group is the American people.”
Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist who worked on the McCain-Palin presidential campaign in 2008, said this week that Carson is surging in the polls because, foremost, he is viewed as principled.
“He’s widely seen as likable,” O’Connell said. “He doesn’t talk like politician. Anytime voters hear something that sounds like political double talk, they tune out.”
It cannot go unstated that Carson is Black. Observers say his candidacy is important to the Republican Party, which has grown tired of being reminded of its woefully deficient support among American voters of color.
To some, he is the Republican Barack Obama. Commentator and author Ta-Neshi Coates of The Atlantic called Carson “… the conservative ‘Black Hope’ of the moment.” Carson has developed strong support among Christian conservative voters—a major force in the Iowa Caucuses—for his opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion. Carson’s biggest advantage may lie in the fact that he is in a field packed largely with career politicians—a profession with which the voting public is, by the day, growing increasingly dissatisfied.
Like Theodore Roosevelt’s famous ad lib, Carson may “speak softly,” but he carries a “big stick” in terms of identifying weaknesses among Democratic presidential candidates. Here’s his take on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:
“She is the epitome of the progressive—the secular progressive movement. And she counts on the fact that people are uninformed, the Alinsky Model, taking advantage of useful idiots.”
Speaking for ‘average Americans’
If Trump stumbles down the road, Carson, a Detroit native who was reared by a single mother, may benefit because he, like the real estate tycoon, believes he speaks for the “average American,” particularly those not born with a social pedigree and representing a community of whom the term “up from your bootstraps” is most appropriate.
A few months ago the Washington Post stated, “Carson’s campaign is falling apart and all his people are leaving,” because of an erroneous report about a lack of funding. Carson quickly responded to the controversy by stating “I just find it amusing. They said ‘you’ll never be able to raise the money’, but they forgot about one very important thing: the people.” Supporters of Carson are donating little chunks of money—$40, 50, $60 at a time—and the candidate has vowed to never go out and “kiss the boots” of billionaires and special-interest groups. In January, the Weekly Standard reported that the “Draft Carson” committee had raised $13 million before he made a single stump speech.
John Wood Jr., second vice-chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County and a former Republican nominee for Congress, said Carson has an outside chance of winning the presidency.
“He’s not a favorite to do so, but he’s consistently polled in the top half of a very competitive Republican field, and in an era of American politics where voters are viciously dissatisfied with status-quo politicians, they just may consider an inspiring newcomer like Ben Carson over familiar political figures on both sides of the aisle,” Wood said.
In comparing Carson’s popularity to that of Donald Trump, Wood noted Carson’s status as an “outsider” which may play an increasing important role in his new front-runner status. “Ben Carson is popular because, like Donald Trump, he is an outsider to the corruption and stagnation of the political culture. But unlike Donald Trump he brings a genteel sense of wisdom and compassion to his political rhetoric.”
A different life experience
The experience factor looms large in a presidential run. Carson also has to defeat a candidate whose father and brother served in the Oval Office. There are firebrands, anti-establishment, and second-generation immigrants among the White House hopefuls who garner a significant portion of the Republican voters who share in these candidates’ respective conservative platforms. And there are the candidates who have previously traveled down the presidential campaign trail. Most political rookies—despite the success of a half-term freshman senator from Illinois—rarely fare well against seasoned pros, let alone win the presidency.
“I want people to understand that you can gain experience from a variety of different life experiences,” Carson told the Associated Press two weeks ago. “The kind of experience we need to solve our problems does not necessarily all come from being a politician.” Carson added that there is a media perception of him as “… an idiot savant who only knows about neurosurgery” and that he couldn’t possibly know anything about economics, foreign affairs or domestic policy. “This is a long race—a marathon—and over time people will discover who I actually am,” he said.
Among the pressing issues facing the candidates are the economy, immigration, abortion and the fight against terrorism. Here is where Carson stands on these fronts:
On the still sluggish economy, Carson points to the nation’s “incredible fiscal irresponsibility,” which he said is of prime concern. The present $18.5 trillion debt, he said, is “unfathomable.”
“If you tried to pay $18 trillion back at a rate of $10 million a day, 365 days a year, it would take more than 5,000 years. That’s what we are putting on the backs of our young people.”
All of the nation’s unfunded liabilities (money that the government must pay out versus what is brought in through taxes), he said, from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all departmental and Cabinet programs, is the result of “… decades of mismanagement.” “Right now, [unfunded liabilities] sit at $211 trillion. I mean, it’s an unfathomable number.” If elected, Carson said he would take immediate steps to reduce the federal workforce.
Standing firm on principles
On immigration, Carson agrees that the border must immediately be secured. “But presently we don’t have the will to do it. There are radical jihadists who want to destroy us and our way of life, and we have to keep them out.” Carson said [illegal] immigrants looking for jobs are attracted to the free government services or “goodies” offered first in border states.
If these services were not available to them, he said, “Guess what? They won’t come.
It won’t be worth trying to get through our borders, if there were no ‘goodies.’ And that includes employment. We should make it illegal to employ people in this country who are not legally here.”
Carson prefers not to rescind the 14th Amendment, but he does advocate an end to “birthright citizenship” which has created the latest firestorm within the presidential race since the issue relates to the 147-year-old provision’s affect on so-called “anchor babies.” Carson has said that he favors a “pathway to citizenship” for illegal immigrants. (The amendment granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed.)
Carson is pro life. He joins his GOP colleagues in full condemnation of the “mainstream media,” particularly in its coverage of his stance on abortion. Decades ago Carson reportedly said that if a woman was pregnant and if doctors could detect that the infant would be born with a “horrible deformity”—and the mother’s life was in jeopardy—he would have the woman “hear both sides” about whether she should or should not abort the fetus. “They’re digging up as much as they can,” Carson said. “Of course I’d make sure [the mother] heard both sides. That’s only reasonable. But the media tried to take that and say ‘Carson refers people to abortionists’ and that’s total crap.”
Prior to his presidential bid, Carson was recognized for his innovation in neurosurgery (in 1987 he led a team of 70 doctors to successfully separate conjoined twins) and his prolific writing. He has authored or served as a co-author of 16 books to date. He and wife Candy have been married for 40 years and have three sons. Carson, a Yale University graduate who counts as one classmates Prof. Henry Louis Gates, was the first Black director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and in 2006 received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. A Gallup poll last year ranked Carson the “sixth most admired man in the world.”
Manny Otiko contributed to this story.
