Ben Carson heading to Israel

Ben Carson will visit Israel next week, the latest sign the conservative favorite might run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

{mosads}Carson is calling the trip a “private fact-finding mission” and said he likely won’t meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other government officials.

Traveling to Israel is a symbolic gesture members of both parties make to show support for a crucial U.S. ally and to burnish their foreign policy bona fides before launching White House bids.

Gov. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), another strong social conservative believed to harbor presidential ambitions, is traveling to Israel later this month as well.

Carson is near the top of the Republican field in polls right now and is the kind of conservative that strategists say has the potential to catch fire in early voting states like Iowa and South Carolina.

A CNN/ORC poll released in late November showed the former neurosurgeon in second place among Republicans, trailing only 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Carson’s presence on Fox News has bolstered his name recognition, but once the primaries begin in earnest, that alone won’t be enough to propel him to the nomination.

It’s expected to be a crowded and diverse field of GOP candidates, and strategists say Carson will have a hard time competing for money, media and voters if others on the right, such as Pence, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) or former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee decide to run.