Ben Carson Surges in Iowa, Runs New Ads in Early States
New polls show presidential candidate Ben Carson surging in Iowa.
— -- On the heels of new polls showing Dr. Ben Carson surging in Iowa, his campaign is rolling out two new television ads today in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
Two new back-to-back polls show Carson taking the lead over Donald Trump in Iowa. A new Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll this morning shows Carson up 10 points since last August, leading Donald Trump by 9 points. And, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, the neurosurgeon climbed to an 8-point lead over the real-estate mogul.
The first ad, called "We the People," shows shots of Carson at rallies along with footage of him and his wife sharing Carson’s vision for America’s future.
“People are so concerned about their future. The future for their children, the future of our nation,” Carson says in the ad. "This country was designed around we the people. Of, for and by the people. We need a government that actually understand that and doesn’t think that it is the ruler of the people.”
The second ad has a much different feel, with Carson talking directly to the camera, comparing Washington, D.C., to a swamp.
“Did you know Washington is built on a swamp?” Carson asks. "Massive government debt, stifling regulation, special interest politics, partisan dysfunction. Washington is broken, the political class broke it. Together, we can drain the swamp and protect our children’s future.”
These are not the first television advertisements run by the Carson campaign, but does represent the beginning of the ad program. The campaign ran television and radio advertisements in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire following the first Republican debate in Cleveland.
The new $500,000 ad buy is scheduled to run for one week. The campaign has been planning this rollout in key early states for about a month. The campaign will run ads in upcoming weeks as well and campaign officials said their future ad buys will not be small.
Get real-time updates as this story unfolds. To start, just "star" this story in ABC News' phone app. Download ABC News for iPhone here or ABC News for Android here.
