In new poll, Ben Carson strides alongside Donald Trump

Ben Carson has amassed considerable new support from Republican primary and caucus voters and is now running nearly even with Donald Trump as their pick for the party’s presidential nomination, according to a new New York Times/CBS News poll.

Far more than other Republican contenders, Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has capitalized on his outsider message – a mix of anti-establishment views, delivered in a calmer tone than Trump’s, and socially conservative positions – to draw voters away from rivals and leap ahead in the poll.

The proportion of Republican voters favoring 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, Trump made modest gains, to 27 percent from 24 percent.

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. Carson drew more support from college graduates than Trump, while those without a college education were more likely to favor Trump.

Overall, 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. Slightly more than half of Trump’s backers say they have decided, while 46 percent said they could still switch candidates. Those who said they had made up their minds are twice as likely to support Trump over Carson. Women were less likely than men to support Trump and more likely than men to support Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

The only other significant gain was made by the third outsider in the Republican field, Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, who drew support from 4 percent of voters, compared with a trace amount in midsummer.

The New York Times/CBS News poll was conducted from Sept. 9-13 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus six percentage points for Republican primary voters.

This story was originally published September 15, 2015 at 10:39 AM with the headline "In new poll, Ben Carson strides alongside Donald Trump."