Dr. Ben Carson, despite trailing far behind in every poll and even being offered money to drop out of the GOP Presidential race, said Monday that he’s not going anywhere just yet.
In an op-ed on Fox News, Carson wrote why he still considers himself a viable candidate for the GOP Presidential bid.
“Despite what you may read in the media, millions of people have already stood up in agreement. This campaign has gained momentum, and I continue to be honored and humbled by the many people who put their faith in me,” he states.
What Carson doesn’t mention, however, is the fact that according to polling research at RealClearPolitics, Carson has absolutely no chance at winning the race, barring something catastrophic happening to the three candidates, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who are leading him.
No, instead, Carson claims that these numbers are a result of the “commoditization” of the electorate.
“Hundreds of thousands of supporters drafted me to run, and hundreds of thousands more continue to push me onward,” he writes. “They do not belong to my campaign. On the contrary, my campaign is beholden to them. However, the gears that turn the political machine no longer recognize “We the People.” Instead they see a mass of voters to be prodded, lured or strong-armed into their camp.”
In a town hall meeting in Texas, Carson talked about how certain special interests have made him financial offers to step down.
“I’ve got unanswered calls on my phone right now, ‘Oh, if you did this or did this, and did this, or if you drop out and support this guy, we’ll give you all this money and we’ll make sure you’re a senator here,’” Carson said. “What a bunch of crap. This is about saving our nation. This is not about horse-trading and making deals.”
Carson did say, however, that he would support the eventual nominee even though he hopes that it will be him.
The Dallas Morning News, however, spoke with several Carson supporters at that town hall and found that many of them have moved on from the one-time leader in the polls.
Two former Carson supporters at that meeting, Rick Munroe and Steven Wofford, both stated that they plan on voting for either Cruz or Rubio.
Not everyone has given up on him, however.
Last week a Super PAC supporting the retired surgeon said in a fundraising email that without him on the ticket, the Republicans would “Lose the African-American Vote.”
The email, signed by 2016 Committee National Chairman John Philip Sousa IV, claims:
“If Ben Carson is on the ticket, either as president or as vice president, we can win the White House by winning upwards of 25 percent of the black vote and 35 percent of the Hispanic vote.”
There was no data available to support that claim, however, aside from “internal polling” done in 2012 by Carson and then-candidate Herman Cain.
Carson’s money appears to be running out, too, however.
According to OpenSecrets.org, he has raised just over $71 million for his campaign but has spent around $67.7 million of it. That’s in contrast to Cruz, who still has $39 million in cash on hand.
It should also be noted that at present Carson has just four delegates, whereas Trump at the moment has 82. Finally, the website Red State made the case last week that a vote for Carson is actually a vote for Trump, due to the fact that Carson isn’t anywhere close to clearing the minimum threshold to earn any delegates on Tuesday.
They explain it, saying,
“Any candidate that does not clear that threshold will have their votes lumped in with that state’s overall winner for the purposes of allocating delegates. In other words, whoever wins the most overall votes in the state (even by one vote) will essentially be awarded proportional delegates according to their own vote total plus the votes of all candidates who did not clear the state’s minimum threshold.”
After Super Tuesday, the next big test for the candidates comes on March 15 when another 358 delegates will be awarded when Florida, North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio and Missouri vote in their primaries. Carson can blame the media all he wants, but the fact remains, he’s nowhere near the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.
Featured image courtesy of Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia available under a Creative Commons license.
