Dr. Ben Carson is the ‘Best-Liked Presidential Candidate’—and He Can Win

He’s the best-liked presidential candidate. He recently surged ahead of Donald Trump in the race. And polls show he’s the GOP’s best chance to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

A political novice and the New York Times best-selling author of A More Perfect Union, Dr. Ben Carson is the “best-liked of all presidential candidates,” according to a new Gallup poll.

The poll found Carson retains his formidable edge in popularity over his Republican presidential rivals, with a net favorable score of “+59” among Republicans nationwide.

“But Carson is popular not only with Republicans, he also has a net favorable score of +21 among national adults—the highest of any candidate from either party,” wrote Andrew Dugan in a Gallup statement. “The public gives other prominent presidential candidates either a lukewarm or an unfavorable reception, including Marco Rubio (+5), Jeb Bush (-2), Hillary Clinton (-6) and Donald Trump (-22).”

The Gallup poll comes as an NBC/Wall Street Journal survey found Carson surged into the lead in the Republican presidential race, garnering 29 percent support versus Trump’s 23 percent. It’s the highest ranking any Republican candidate has obtained and supports a New York Times poll that found the retired neurosurgeon passing Trump, who has led state and national polls for months.

Meanwhile, the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found Carson is the GOP’s best chance to Clinton in 2016. 

In a National Review story, Henry Olson wrote he believes Carson can beat Clinton in November 2016. Under the “quiet, soft-spoken image is a man with a plan, and that plan is working,” Olson wrote.
“Dr. Ben Carson is doing something no one has done in decades, (combining) a values-laden conservative message with a soft-spoken, humble persona,” Olson wrote. “Others who have sought Reagan’s mantle have emulated elements of the Gipper’s approach, but none have spoken the language of freedom and the morality of the Bible with such eloquence and calm until now.

“He talks about moral decline without the rancor or anger that typified other past favorites of the party’s religious conservative faction. He talks about the loss of American freedom without the sense of foreboding and doom that characterize all too many who seek to lead the tea-party wing. He talks about fiscal restraint and tax cuts without seeming to care more about numbers than people, as too many have who’ve sought the favor of the party’s fiscal-soft libertarian faction. And he so far has projected the calm, deliberative nature that somewhat-conservatives crave.”

Among Republicans, three in four are familiar with Carson. And of the three-quarters of Republicans who know him, only a small percentage—8 percent—have an unfavorable view, the Gallup survey found.

“Republicans’ nearly universal appreciation for Carson is an important reason for his robust popularity nationally,” Dugan wrote. “More than four in 10 (42 percent) U.S. adults identify as or lean Republican, meaning Carson receives high marks from about two-fifths of the country.”

Carson records a –13 net favorable rating among Democrats and independents who lean Democratic, better than most of his Republican rivals and significantly better than the more widely known candidates such as Rubio, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Trump.

As the sole black candidate running for president in either party, Carson is relatively popular with blacks compared with his GOP rivals.

“For the moment, Carson is the most popular major-party candidate—and by a wide margin,” Dugan wrote. “While this fact might suggest Carson has a rare bipartisan appeal that the other presidential candidates lack, his popularity is chiefly driven by his extremely positive image among Republicans. Democrats who have an opinion of Carson see him in less negative terms than they see other Republican candidates, but ultimately, about four in 10 Democrats—a group prone to view any GOP candidate unfavorably because of that candidate’s politics—do not currently know Carson.

“And that is the situation Carson faces. He enjoys a high familiarity rating among Republicans, but if he is to become a better-known figure nationally, he will have to ‘introduce’ himself to Democrats. If normal political forces prevail, though, it is likely that expanded familiarity will come at the cost of lower popularity. If more Democrats do come to know him—even if they decide they don’t like him—it is a sign that his once-improbable campaign is becoming much less so.”