Ben Carson unveiled more changes to the top of his presidential campaign with three weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses. The staff shakeup comes amid news that the retired neurosurgeon is hemorrhaging support in New Hampshire and follows the ouster of Carson’s campaign manager last month.
The Carson campaign announced that Col. Christopher Bourne will serve as a policy director, while it named Jason Osbourne a senior communications strategist. Bourne served 25 years in the U.S. Marine Corps and his appointment comes as Carson looks to hone his foreign policy knowledge, while Osbourne formerly served as a deputy senior strategist.
The campaign also appointed A. Larry Ross as communications director, following Doug Watts who resigned from the campaign just before the 2015 calendar year ended. Barry Bennett’s campaign manager also left at the end of 2015, and has since stated that he believes Donald Trump will become the next GOP presidential nominee. But some of the doctor’s top supporters left his cause to join a different candidate’s campaign.
Several staffers in the New Hampshire operation of the 2016 Committee, a super PAC supporting Carson’s candidacy, left Carson to back Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, WMUR first reported. The five paid staffers who decided to support Cruz over Carson reportedly said they wanted to pick a conservative who could win and noted Carson’s infrequent trips to the Granite State.
Carson ranks eighth in the Washington Examiner‘s newest GOP presidential power rankings and fourth in RealClearPolitics’ average of national polls.
