Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is suspending his campaign for two more weeks to promote his new book,
"A More Perfect Union," and attend several fund-raising events.
"It’s a question of co-mingling from the corporate standpoint to the Federal Election Commission standpoint, so it’s just better to avoid any bad appearance," Carson spokesman Doug Watts
told ABC News on Wednesday.
The goal is to separate campaign events from the book tour. As such, the retired pediatric neurosurgeon will not appear at any "campaign events" for the next three weeks, Watts said.
Carson has been finishing No. 2 in recent polls behind Donald Trump.
"Our numbers went up in the Fox poll in the last seven days and our numbers went up in the CBS poll in the last four days," Watts told ABC. "They did the same thing in Virginia, and we are the only Republican beating Hillary Clinton in Virginia, so right now I don’t see any reason to be worried."
The candidate is participating in fund-raisers this week — and the book tour will take him to Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa next week.
Carson's next public campaign appearance will be on Oct. 28, the day of the next Republican debate. The event will be moderated by CNBC and held at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
His last appearance on the trail was on Oct. 2, ABC reports.
"He’s been on TV," Watts said. "I think, Wednesday through Friday, I got sick of looking at him on TV.
"So, it’s pretty hard to suggest that he’s not out and about," he added. "Whether you make a distinction of it as a campaign thing or not.
"Most people at home just see Ben Carson out there talking about something that is or isn't important to them."