Ben Carson Takes Lead in GOP National Race

Ben Carson is leading the Republican presidential field, according to a poll released Tuesday.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds the retired neurosurgeon has support from 29 percent of GOP primary voters—the largest share of potential voters a Republican has garnered so far.

Carson is followed by previous frontrunner Donald Trump at 23 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at 11 percent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 10 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at eight percent.

His lead is outside the survey’s margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent.

The phone survey of 1,000 people was conducted Oct. 25-29, both before and after CNBC’s Republican presidential debate on Oct. 28. Carson was trailing Trump by 3 points before the debate at 22 percent in the last NBC/WSJ poll conducted in mid-October and the two have been trading places in other national polls over the last month.

Carson is also picking up substantial support as a second choice among Republican voters. Taken together, 5o percent of GOP voters would choose Carson for either their first or second choice in the presidential race. Trump had 35 percent, while Rubio captured 24 percent.

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