The gospel of Ben Carson

Once Carson stepped off the primetime debate stage in Cleveland, Ohio, the retired neurosurgeon skyrocketed to second place in several surveys of GOP voters, including a national poll and others of early nominating states. Carson has made overtures to disenfranchised voters that other candidates may have looked past en route to his improved standing in the polls.

Carson’s grassroots supporters have an almost religious fervor, spreading their candidate’s message like evangelists. Around the country, a super PAC supporting Ben Carson, the 2016 Committee, hands out the written word — books about Carson — and holds events where people can watch Gifted Hands, a theatrical depiction of Carson’s medical career with Cuba Gooding Jr. playing a starring role.

The language used by Carson’s following sounds nearly messianic, which may largely stem from his work as a doctor. Mark Young, a doctor of physical medicine, counted Dr. Carson as a colleague at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1990s and describes the GOP presidential candidate as “someone who not only saved lives for a living but reached out to families, reached out to patients, and gave it his heart and his soul.”

Young held an event for the 2016 Committee supporting Carson on Sunday night to attract new supporters who wanted to learn about Carson in Baltimore County, Maryland. Approximately 50 people attended, including many of whom, Young said, had heard of “Ben Carson the healer” and wanted to know more about him.

“The type of work that I do is pretty much the aftercare, I’m not a surgeon, I don’t intervene on operative matters, but I saw many of the success stories and had an opportunity to refer patients to Dr. Carson on many occasions and he was just a medical miracle worker who put personhood above politics,” Young said. “I’m not someone who really jumps up and down at the name of a candidate, and I’m not really a political person either. But reading it from Dr. Carson, reading [his book America the Beautiful] from someone who is so accomplished in his field, made such a huge difference.”

When Carson campaigned in Harlem earlier this month, he found that John Burnett, a New York GOP strategic adviser, had assembled a crowd of overlooked and underrepresented Republicans, Democrats, and independents in search of a change.

Burnett told the Washington Examiner he took great care to ensure that the 25 guests he invited to Sylvia’s Soul Food restaurant for lunch included people from all walks of life such as reverends and imams, and people of diverse backgrounds including African Americans, Caucasians, Asians, and Hispanics.

“It was an unusual lunch, normally the candidate speaks for five, ten minutes— no more than ten minutes — and the rest is Q and A, but Dr. Carson is so engaging he talked for about 30 to 40 minutes probably,” Burnett said. “He paid for the luncheon and he never asked for a dime during the entire speech. It was all about the issues, his platform, and message.”

Burnett hopes other candidates will campaign in New York City, which he described as “the mecca” of black and urban America. He has already invited five other candidates, including Carly Fiorina, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, but said an open invitation exists for any candidate to visit New York’s urban hubs.

“I hope this is the beginning to compete, not just for votes, but to shift ideology and most importantly give people options, viable options in the political process, even in areas like New York where we’re outnumbered 8-to-1 [as Republicans],” he said. “It’s time to change the game and this [Carson’s visit] is a game changer.”

While Carson stumped in nontraditional stomping grounds for a GOP presidential candidate in Harlem, he also followed Republican politicians’ well-worn path to the moneyed interests of the Cowboy State. Foster Friess, who bankrolled former Sen. Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign in 2012 and has also given money in 2016, attended a fundraiser for Carson in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Despite publicly pledging his support for Santorum, Friess flagged the event for fellow social conservatives and did the same for an upcoming event featuring Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Carson’s invitation-only fundraiser was held at a home of Mike Marshall, chairman of an Atlanta-based family real estate business named Georgia Capital. Marshall’s “intimate gathering” included approximately 100 guests and required a $500 contribution from individuals and $1,000 per couple. Marshall, too, had read Carson’s books and subsequently began proselytizing Carson’s gospel.

“I read them all [Carson’s books], and my wife and I watched the movie “Gifted Hands.” I felt that I had “discovered” one the great Americans of our time,” Marshall wrote in an email. “I have never been actively involved in politics before. My decision to get involved in this campaign was inspired by my concern for this country, shared by millions of others, and by my enormous respect for Dr. Carson. I truly believe he would make an outstanding president, his lack of political experience notwithstanding.”

Carson’s lack of political experience appears to have manifested itself in the form of various verbal miscues that Carson has recently made. While visiting the southern border in Arizona, Carson allegedly made comments suggesting that “drone strikes” could be used to secure the border. He later pushed back against the notion that he would use lethal force at the border, during an appearance on CNN.

“That’s a total lie, what I said is it’s possible that a drone could be used to destroy the caves that are utilized to hide people; those need to be gotten rid of,” Carson told CNN. “Listen very carefully to what I’m saying, I said there are caves, there are caves that they utilize. Those caves can be eliminated. There are a number of possibilities — that could be one of them. I’m not talking about killing people. No people with drones.”

While his remarks about how to secure the border received widespread scrutiny, Carson’s fervent flock appears not to care. Carson finished second place, behind Donald Trump, in recent polls of Republican voters from Iowa, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and a nationwide survey conducted by Fox News. Carson seems content in second place at this stage of the race, where he has enjoyed positive poll numbers without the same level of criticism that hits Trump, as the front-runner. His fans are happy, too.

“I think that people are really groping to have someone from a non-Washington background, from a non-political background, come and take the baton and lead this country in a meaningful way,” said Young, Carson’s former colleague. “The fact is that he’s someone who’s a hometown hero. He’s saved so many lives. He’s operated on so many kids with wonderful outcomes. He’s touched the lives of so many people and that very very very few politicians can really comment, can really say that they’ve accomplished this great task.”

“This is a man whose time has come and this is a man whose going to lead our country back to greatness, and all in a very dignified and civil way, I might add.”