Donald Trump may have an unlikely rival for the Republican nomination for president. Ben Carson has tied with him in a Monmouth University poll of likely Iowa Republican voters in the upcoming Iowa caucus. According to CNN, both Trump and Carson have 23 percent of voter support in this poll, while the next closest candidate was Carly Fiorina with 10 percent. In a previous Monmouth poll, before the first Republican debate, Jeb Bush led the pack with 22 percent of the Iowa caucus vote. Now, he has 5 percent.
The caucus isn’t happening until February of next year, and let’s remember that Rick Santorum narrowly won 2012’s Iowa caucus, before losing the nomination anyway. Still, that’s not stopping the media from putting together explainers on Ben Carson, hoping and praying that he can de-throne Donald Trump (or am I just projecting?). CNN has one such explainer, telling readers that Carson won a Medal of Freedom for “groundbreaking surgical work,” and that he is the only candidate who hasn’t gone after Trump, to the point where Trump himself says, “I like Ben Carson very much. He’s really a fine man. He’s a friend of mine. He’s doing well also.”
The CNN article also explains how Carson bombarded Iowa with ads in the few weeks after the first debate, and attracted locals to “family festivals” with pony rides and other fair attractions to promote his brand. In his campaign, Carson is the anti-Trump, modestly promoting his own accomplishments and good works over fiery rhetoric about wealth and illegal immigration.