NBC/WSJ Poll: Ben Carson Takes Lead in Race For Republican Nomination

According to a recently released NBC/WSJ poll, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson has now vaulted into the lead for the Republican Presidential nomination.

Donald Trump, since announcing his candidacy for President a number of months ago, has been sitting at or near the top of the polls. Trump's gains had come at the expense of names such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, both of whom saw their numbers shrink while Trump vaulted up in the polls. Trump, who loves a good skirmish and is the master of the sound byte, saw his numbers top 30% last month.

Ben Carson, however, has been coming on strong in recent weeks, despite some controversial and sometimes head-scratching comments.

On June 15th, 2015, Donald Trump had 1% support from those who say that they are planning on voting in the Republican Primary, while Ben Carson had 11% support. By mid-September, Trump had 21% support, while Carson was lagging slightly behind at 20%.

According to the most recent poll from NBC/WSJ, the numbers now look like this:

Ben Carson, 29%
Donald Trump, 23%
Marco Rubio, 11%
Ted Cruz, 10%
Jeb Bush, 8%
Carly Fiorina, 3%
John Kasich, 3%
Mike Huckabee, 3%
Chris Christie, 3%
Rand Paul, 2%

A few notes:

-Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz haven't seen their numbers move much over the past week, despite their strong showing in the Republican debate

-Jeb Bush has not been able to regain his momentum and you have to wonder how much longer he will be able to stick in the race

-the Carly Fiorina surge has seemingly ended

-Chris Christie, who also scored strongly during the recent Republican debate, saw his support increase from 1% to 3%

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Does Ben Carson have staying power at the top of the polls, or will Donald Trump (or somebody else) be able to regain the lead?

Source: WSJ.com - NBC/WSJ Poll (*.pdf)

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