It’s official. Donald Trump is no longer the leading candidate in the GOP presidential race.
Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon, has pulled ahead of the pack in the Wall Street Journal and NBC News’ latest joint poll. Carson scored support from 29% of Republican primary voters, beating Trump’s 23% as well as Marco Rubio’s 11%, Ted Cruz’s 10%, and Jeb Bush’s 8%.
The results mesh with the findings of a New York Times and CBS News joint poll published last week. That survey showed Carson (at 26%) to have a four-point lead over led Trump (22%), although Carson’s advantage fell within the poll’s six-point margin of error.
The latest poll results are more clearly cut. Carson has six-point lead over Trump. (Though wider than what the NYT/CBS poll measured, Carson’s lead still does not clear the new poll’s 4.9-point margin or error.)
The survey was sampled from 400 GOP primary voters between Oct. 25-29, before and after last week’s third GOP presidential debate.
This is the first time since June that a Republican candidate other than Trump has led the WSJ/NBC poll, the Journal noted.
About three-fourths of those polled say they perceive Trump as “being effective and getting things done.” He scored lower marks when respondents were asked whether he is “knowledgeable and experienced enough to handle the presidency,” “easygoing and likable” or has “the right temperament,” the Journal said.
Other findings included that more than three quarters of Republican primary voters—77%—said they would consider backing Carson for president versus 60% who said the same for Trump.
This post has been updated to clarify that Carson’s lead over Trump does not clear the latest poll’s margin of error.
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