Ben Carson To Stay In 2016 Race At Least Through Super Tuesday After Poor Start To Nominating Season

Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson has so far refused to suspend his presidential campaign after losing in four straight nominating states. He is telling backers that he plans on holding out through Super Tuesday, according to a Politico report. But unless he manages to pull off a very surprising upset that defies polls and the charging velocity of the Donald Trump campaign, March 1 will probably be his last hurrah.

His poor showing in Iowa — followed by New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — show that the once-hyped campaign has failed to truly resonate with voters as they ponder who is best suited to take on Democrats in a general election and potentially become the next president. Somehow, his campaign has failed to translate his generally languid demeanor into excited and robust support on voting day.

“I think Super Tuesday, March 1, is going to be a moment of truth,” Armstrong Williams, a close political confidant of Carson's with knowledge of his plans to stay in the race, told Politico. “You cannot ignore the fact that our predictions of what would happen and what could turn this around have not come to fruition yet. Unless that happens, it is obvious what the outcome will be.”

That outcome seems unlikely, at least as far as polls go. National support for the doctor has fallen far from what it once was and is hovering around 7.4 percent, according to averages compiled by Real Clear Politics. His support in Super Tuesday states isn’t much better, and many fall below that national benchmark.

For his part, Carson seems to be aware that there were some major problems in his campaign. The Atlantic notes that the Carson campaign has been suspected for a long time of being a political scam operation, and Carson appears to have noticed that potential. “We had people who didn't really seem to understand finances,” Carson said Tuesday on CNN, “or maybe they did — maybe they were doing it on purpose.”