Ben Carson may be shifting toward a 2016 run for president.
Carson has said that while he doesn't have a plan to make a run, and would only do so if he felt "called by God." Now, he is "starting to feel it."
According to
The Weekly Standard, the retired director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital said his thoughts about running for president have been affected recently by the enthusiastic audience he has received from across the country.
Urgent: Do You Want Dr. Carson to Run in 2016? Vote in Urgent Poll.
"Over the years, there have been many attempts to get me to throw my hat in the political arena," Carson wrote in his new book, "One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future."
"I have been offered support from around the country and tremendous financial resources if I decide to run for national office. But I have not felt the call to run," he wrote, adding that "If I felt called by God to officially enter the world of politics, I would certainly not hesitate to do so."
But in an interview this week, Carson told the Standard he's "starting to feel it. Because every place I go, it's unbelievable."
He said one woman "really touched me the other night … She just kept clinging to my hand and said, 'You have to run. You have to run.' And so many people tell me that, and so I think I'm starting to hear something."
Nevertheless, Carson told the Standard the prospect would be "daunting."
"I know how vehemently the left will come after you, try to destroy you, try to destroy your family. But at the same time I recognize that people like Nathan Hale – he said, 'My only regret is I have but one life to give to my country' … And if everybody runs for the hills because they're afraid that somebody is going to attack them or their family, then [the left] will have won."
In December, in an
interview with Steve Malzberg on Newsmax TV, Carson acknowledged that running in 2016 would be a possibility.
"As far as my running for public office, that was never my intention. I thought when I retired I was going to play golf and learn how to play an organ. But, obviously, the good Lord had a different plan for me. I will obviously listen, but that is not what I really had intended to do."
Urgent: Do You Want Dr. Carson to Run in 2016? Vote in Urgent Poll.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.