--- title: Ben Carson Threatens to Leave Republican Party description: Following a report that the RNC is preparing for a possible brokered convention, Ben Carson has threatened to leave the party. canonical: https://time.com/4145871/ben-carson-donald-trump-republican/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-11T17:39:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:58.971Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ben Carson Threatens to Leave Republican Party og:description: It has to do with GOP convention procedure. og:url: https://time.com/4145871/ben-carson-donald-trump-republican/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0572bfb5104774f3/69887504524fc0d1dadf5e26/ben-carson1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4381 og:image:height: 2464 og:image:alt: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks during a press conference in Chicago og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ben Carson Threatens to Leave Republican Party twitter:description: It has to do with GOP convention procedure. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0572bfb5104774f3/69887504524fc0d1dadf5e26/ben-carson1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ben Carson Threatens to Leave Republican Party Over Possible Convention Challenge > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Watch Ben Carson Retell His Life Story [Watch (HLS stream): Watch Ben Carson Retell His Life Story](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3PLzGzLI.m3u8) (1:39)  _Published 2015-10-27. GOP Presidential Candidate Ben Carson retells his life story_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 11, 2015 5:39 PM UTC  U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks during a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, United States. U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks during a news conference in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Jim Young—REUTERS  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 11, 2015 5:39 PM UTC Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson threatened to leave his party Thursday, following [reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-preparing-for-contested-convention/2015/12/10/d72574bc-9f73-11e5-8728-1af6af208198%5Fstory.html) that party leaders had discussed preparations for a brokered convention at a recent dinner in Washington, D.C. “If the leaders of the Republican Party want to destroy the party, they should continue to hold meetings like the one described in the Washington Post this morning,” Carson said in a statement released by his campaign. The Post story suggested that some of the discussion focused on ways of blocking Donald Trump from getting the nomination. “If it \[the report\] is correct, every voter who is standing for change must know they are being betrayed. I won’t stand for it,” Carson said, continuing that if the report was accurate, “I assure you Donald Trump won’t be the only one leaving the party.” “I am prepared to lose fair and square, as I am sure is Donald,” Carson continued. “But I will not sit by and watch a theft. I intend on being the nominee. If I am not, the winner will have my support. If the winner isn’t our nominee then we have a massive problem.” Party elders, both at the Republican National Committee and in informal advisory roles, have long been working to prepare for a possible brokered convention, even though Chairman Reince Priebus has argued that the party is likely to pick a nominee by the Spring, as TIME’s Zeke Miller [reported in October](http://time.com/4065953/gop-rules-could-bring-a-messy-fight-to-the-nominating-convention/). Monday’s meeting described in the _Post_ was regularly scheduled meeting of advisors to Priebus. “We’re seeing the pitchforks ascendant in Washington,” one party graybeard told Miller back in October. “Just wait until they realize what trouble they can cause in Cleveland.” **Read More:** [_GOP Rule Change Could Make the Presidential Race Messy_](http://time.com/4065953/gop-rules-could-bring-a-messy-fight-to-the-nominating-convention/) ## Transcript I was born and grew up very poor. Single parent home. But my mother was out working extraordinarily hard. Three jobs at a time. And she only had a third grade education. She had to take care of us. [ UNKNOWN ] poverty. I was a terrible student. A horrible student. Had a bad temper. As a teenager, I would go out to people with rocks and bricks and Baseball bats and hammers. Most of my classmates thought I was the stupidest person in the world. They called me dummy. I was the **** of all the jokes. When I was 14 and I tried to stab someone. My mother couldn't stand the fact that we were doing poorly in school. And she prayed and she asked God to give her wisdom. And you know what? God gave her the wisdom. Turning off the TV and making us read books and submit to her written book reports, which she couldn't read. I began to read about people of great accomplishment. I began to see that the person who has the most to do with what happens with you in life is you. Is you. You know, I loved anything that had to do with medicine. I even like going to the doctor's office. [ LAUGH ] And I would gladly sacrifice a shot just to be able to smell those alcohol swabs. And as a pediatric neurosurgeon who spent my entire career Working on the welfare of children. There had been many times when I've operated for 12, 15, 18, 20 hours. I'm the only one that separate Siamese twins. The only one to operate on babies while they were still in their mother's womb. The only one to take out half of a brain, although you would think, if you go to Washington, that someone had beat me to it. Ben Carson And I am a candidate for President of the United States. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4145871/ben-carson-donald-trump-republican/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4145871/ben-carson-donald-trump-republican/"},"headline":"Ben Carson Threatens to Leave Republican Party Over Possible Convention Challenge","datePublished":"2015-12-11T17:39:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:58.971Z","description":"Another provocative statement in the GOP primary","url":"https://time.com/4145871/ben-carson-donald-trump-republican/","keywords":["republicans","2016 Election","Donald Trump","Dr. Benjamin S. 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