Ben Carson is hot on Donald Trump’s trail, according to a new Fox News poll of likely Republican primary voters.
Trump edges out Carson 24 percent to 23 percent. Ted Cruz was in third place at 10 percent, followed by Marco Rubio at 9 percent and Jeb Bush at 8 percent.
Carly Fiorina fell from 9 percent in September to 5 percent now, putting her in a tie with Mike Huckabee. Rand Paul takes 3 percent.
Chris Christie, John Kasich, George Pataki and Bobby Jindal are all polling 1 percent. Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham and Jim Gilmore are all below 1 percent.
Carson was a plurality of Republicans’ second choice at 18 percent. It’s noteworthy that Rubio was the second choice for 13 percent, showing some room to build on his current standing. Fiorina is the second choice for 9 percent.
Candidates need a polling average of at least 2.5 percent to appear in the next Republican primary debate on Oct. 28.
The poll was based on live interviews with 1,004 random national voters, with a margin of error of three percentage points.
