Ben Carson Catches Up to Tie Trump in New Iowa Poll

In the weeks since the first GOP debate on Fox News, Ben Carson has been slowing moving into the #2 position in several polls, but has always trailed frontrunner Donald Trump by significant margins — until now. In the latest Monmouth University poll of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers, Carson is tied with Trump at 23%.

Those numbers represent a 10 point jump for Trump since July and a 15 point increase for Carson. The last time Monmouth University surveyed Iowans, Scott Walker held a commanding lead with 22%.

The survey puts Trump and Carson far out ahead of the rest of the GOP pack, with the other so-called “outsider” candidate Carly Fiorina coming in second place with 10%. Ted Cruz is third with 9%, Scott Walker is fourth with 7% and Jeb Bush is all the way down at fifth place with just 5% of the vote.

And while Trump and Carson are tied overall in the poll, which was conducted from August 27-30 and with a statewide sample of 405 Iowa Republicans and margin of error of +/- 4.9 percentage points, Carson actually leads Trump among Evangelicals (29-23%) and women (30-19%). Trump leads Carson among tea party voters (27-22%) and men (27-17%).

Carson also has by far the best favorability rating of any GOP candidate in Iowa with 81% favorable and just 6% unfavorable. Despite his success, Trump has a favorability rating of 52% with 33% of those surveyed viewing him unfavorably.

[Photo via screengrab]

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