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Power Ranking: Carson Out of Top 5
Tuesday, December 29, 2015 01:23 PM
By: Cathy Burke
Retired pediatric surgeon Ben Carson continues a slide in support — and is now out of the top five in the latest weekly ranking of the GOP presidential primary field.
According to the USA Today "Power Rankings," Donald Trump remains at the top of the list, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Here's the GOP Power Rankings, determined by a survey of 30 political analysts, for the last week of 2015, with the candidate's place in last week's survey in parentheses.
1. Trump (1)
2. Cruz (2)
3. Rubio (3)
4. Christie (4)
5. Bush (6)
6. Carson (5)
7. Ohio Gov. John Kasich (8)
8. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (7)
9. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (9)
10. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (10)
11. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (11)
12. Former New York Gov. George Pataki (12)
13. Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (13)
"Four months of Power Rankings have shown the Republicans presidential field to be remarkably stable," USA Today writes of the selection.
The newspaper notes at the start of the weekly feature on September 1, the top five were Trump, Carson, Rubio, Bush and Cruz.
"Carson took the top spot in late October, but but could not hold it even a second week," the newspaper notes.
There may be considerably more movement next month in the weeks before the Feb. 1, 2016 Iowa caucuses, USA Today notes.
"It's about to get real," political analyst Nathan Gonzales tells USA Today.
"For months we've said, 'It's a long way to February,' but now it is just a few weeks away. No one predicted this is where we would be with about a month to go, and I'm not sure I trust anyone who claims to know definitively where this race is headed."
