Ben Carson
Ben Carson is solidifying his second-place status behind Donald Trump in polls of the crowded Republican presidential primary field—and Trump's juggernaut status is looking a bit dented. According to a
New York Times/CBS News poll:
The proportion of Republican voters favoring Mr. Carson rose to 23 percent from 6 percent in the previous CBS News poll, which was taken just before the first televised Republican debate in early August. Over that same period, Mr. Trump made modest gains, to 27 percent from 24 percent.
Mr. Carson pulled at least some of his support from Republicans who are more typical political figures. Jeb Bush fell in the poll, to 6 percent, from 13 percent, and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin tumbled to 2 percent from 10 percent. No other candidates fell as much as those two, according to the poll.
Trump's four point lead over Carson is within the poll's margin of error. Meanwhile, Trump and Carson and one and two again in this week's
Morning Consult poll, where the gap is wider with Trump drawing 33 percent and Carson drawing 17 percent. But of interest in that poll:
Trump’s support is increasingly based on a growing gender gap, one that has become more pronounced throughout the summer. Today, 42 percent of men who identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning independents say they back Trump, versus 25 percent of women voters. In late August, the gender gap between men and women backing Trump stood at 9 percentage points.
This sort of thing is what men worried about when women got the vote, you know?
Patrick Healy's write-up of the New York Times/CBS News poll contains one important cautionary note: It's still really early.
Over all, 37 percent of Republican voters say their minds are made up about which candidate they will support as their party’s presidential nominee, while 63 percent say it is still too early to say.
There's a lot of time for mind-changing.