Most analysts would put winning the GOP nomination past former neurosurgeon Ben Carson. However, the Carson campaign reports that it has raised about $2 million since the February 1 Iowa caucuses. The campaign windfall is quite surprising despite his poor performance in the primaries so far.
Carson finished a distant-fourth in the Iowa caucus and dead last among eight active contenders in New Hampshire primary of the GOP. Carson briefly led polls for the GOP nomination in early November but has since dropped off, facing one problem or the other in his campaign.
During the Iowa caucus, some workers of Iowa poll leading candidate, Ted Cruz spread a false rumor that Ben Carson was leaving the Republican contest. They started urging Carson’s supporters to join the Cruz’s campaign. Carson’s campaign team has continually claimed that was the core of its sudden fundraising resurgence. Ted Cruz’s campaign has consistently blamed that source of that error on an ambiguous CNN report about the issue, even as the reports never implied Carson’s leaving the Republican race.
The fierce backlash could have resurrected campaign funding but Carson’s performance in the rest of the primaries is the real question. With few days from the February 20 South Carolina primary, the real issue would be whether Carson can turn any of this campaign cash into votes.
Ben Carson campaign media strategist, Armstrong Williams, claims: “He [Carson] will live and camp in South Carolina. We’re seeing an election cycle we thought would be impossible. Anything could happen. Trump and Cruz could tank between now and July. The only way you could play out these possibilities is stay in the race.” Just few weeks ago, anyone would have predicted that Carson would have gone like other contenders who started the race but left before the race even began. Since November, his campaign had been hemorrhaging cash after funding issues amid backlash from his statements on foreign policy.
