Ben Carson And Donald Trump Virtually Tied In New Poll

The longtime GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is no longer leading his rivals by such a great margin, according to one new poll. In the latest NBC/WSJ poll, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is just one percentage point behind the real estate tycoon.

The poll found that 21 percent of Republican primary voters supported Donald Trump. Mr. Carson is right behind Trump at 20 percent. In recent polls, Carson was in second place, but several percentage points away from Trump. It appears as though that gap has closed.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Florida Senator Marco Rubio are tired in third place with 11 percent each. Jeb Bush is now at seven percent, John Kasich at six, and Ted Cruz is at five percent. All other Republican candidates polled at three percent or less.

This latest poll may make some people happy — knowing that Trump is losing his lead — but it may be too early to rejoice. Mr. Trump is still leading, and there’s little evidence to suggest his campaign will lose its momentum.

As The Hill reported, Public Policy Polling director Tom Jensen said that the recent polls have had varied results.

“The national polling that has come out this week has been mixed,”

He continued by saying he doesn’t believe Trump’s campaign is waning.

“But it’s not something where I would buy into a narrative of Trump declining, unless that was the narrative I wanted. I think, in some quarters, the media people are getting bored [with Trump’s strength] and are ready to write a different story.”

Many people, especially Trump supporters, believe that on the whole, the media is treating Mr. Trump unfairly. If the media is treating him unfairly, the negativity may be helping his campaign rather than hurting it.

Tobe Berkovitz, a professor at Boston University said that Trump supporters already have a distaste toward the media. So, since the media has been relentlessly attacking Trump, his supporters believe he’s doing something right.

“The problem with the media is that the voters who support Trump hold the media in contempt. So for the media to try to pound The Donald just reinforces the idea that Trump is correct, and is the hero for a lot of people who are dissatisfied,”

It’s also worth noting that the NBC/WSJ poll has a margin of error of 6.5 percentage points, which is a large margin by most standards. The poll only included 230 GOP primary voters.

[Photo by Sean Rayford / Getty Images]