--- title: Ben Carson 2016: The Right's Favorite MD Hits the Airwaves description: A lengthy informercial on the conservative doctor may be a prelude to a presidential campaign canonical: https://time.com/3572987/ben-carson-republican-president/ author: Alex Altman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-07T20:45:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:41.193Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ben Carson 2016: The Right's Favorite MD Hits the Airwaves og:description: A lengthy informercial on the conservative doctor may be a prelude to a presidential campaign og:url: https://time.com/3572987/ben-carson-republican-president/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2dce11712a3c80d9/6986852df983e777ed04cb6e/ben-carlson-cpac.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1800 og:image:height: 1013 og:image:alt: ben-carlson-cpac og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ben Carson 2016: The Right's Favorite MD Hits the Airwaves twitter:description: A lengthy informercial on the conservative doctor may be a prelude to a presidential campaign twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2dce11712a3c80d9/6986852df983e777ed04cb6e/ben-carlson-cpac.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dr. Ben Carson's Non-Campaign for President Hits the Air > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=d46887a7-f24e-4a4b-89ed-ca9d49b1bb89&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Nov 7, 2014 8:45 PM UTC  Dr. Ben Carson is shown on a screen backstage while he speaks during the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. Dr. Ben Carson is shown on a screen backstage while he speaks during the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. Lexey Swall—Grain for TIME  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Nov 7, 2014 8:45 PM UTC Pretending to run for president can be a lucrative business. Just ask Donald Trump, who’s milked every dime and dollop of attention from his perpetual flirtation with politics. So too can running a no-shot campaign. Just ask Herman Cain or Newt Gingrich, whose book sales skyrocketed from the attendant publicity. Sometimes the spoils of fake campaigns accrue to people other than the supposed candidate. For many months now, a political-action committee has been raising money to cnovince retired doctor Ben Carson to run for president. Carson, who shot to stardom on the right with a rebuke to President Obama at the 2013 national prayer breakfast, has become a sizzling commodity in conservative circles, racking up straw poll victories and placing high in surveys of a hypothetical 2016 field. The National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee has capitalized, raising a staggering $11 million this cycle in a bid to coax Carson to run. That’s more than the Ready for Hillary folks, even though Clinton seems nearly certain to run and Carson has told media, [including TIME](http://time.com/68078/ben-carson-for-president-draft/), that he has little interest. He may have changed his mind. This weekend, an hour-long documentary on Carson will air in 22 states, plus Washington, D.C., including media markets in Oregon and upstate New York where Presidential politics rarely travels. Carson’s business manager is footing the bill for the program, entitled “Ben Carson: A Breath of Fresh Air.” The lengthy, expensive advertisement for Carson’s campaign-in-waiting [convinced Fox News to cut ties](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/11/07/fox-news-cuts-ties-with-ben-carson/) with Carson, as it did in 2012 with Gingrich and Rick Santorum when those men took serious steps toward launching presidential bids. “2016 is upon us, and Ben Carson is first out of the gate,”[ declared](http://americanbridgepac.org/icymi-ben-carson-kicking-off-2016-gop-primary-with-hour-long-tv-ad/) the Democratic research firm American Bridge. While the documentary seems to indicate that Carson is seriously mulling a campaign, it is not likely to convince rival political operations to take the doctor seriously. There is no doubt that Carson is hugely popular on the right; in a recent poll of Iowa Republicans, he placed [second](http://images.businessweek.com/bloomberg/pdfs/2104-qfi-Rep-Iowa-caucus-poll-tabulated-questionnaire.pdf) to Mitt Romney in a ranking of prospective presidential candidates. And his backers have shrewdly tapped into [the direct-mail fundraising machine](http://time.com/23001/conservatives-inc/#) that long been a powerful force on the right. But smart campaigns don’t blow huge sums on running over-long advertisements [at odd times in states that don’t matter](http://realbencarson.com/a-breath-of-fresh-air-a-new-prescription-for-america/). It’s an unusual stunt for an unusual figure, who still may not be a candidate at all. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3572987/ben-carson-republican-president/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3572987/ben-carson-republican-president/"},"headline":"Dr. Ben Carson's Non-Campaign for President Hits the Air","datePublished":"2014-11-07T20:45:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:41.193Z","description":"A lengthy informercial on the conservative doctor may be a prelude to a presidential campaign","url":"https://time.com/3572987/ben-carson-republican-president/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Dr. Benjamin S. 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