Poll: Trump, Carson neck and neck atop GOP field

Donald Trump and Ben Carson are running neck and neck atop the 2016 Republican presidential field, according to a new national poll.

{mosads}The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday morning found 21 percent support from Republican primary voters for Trump and 20 percent for Carson.

Carson’s support has doubled since July, when he attracted !0 percent in a similar poll.

Carson said Sunday that the poll “reflects what we’ve been seeing out on the road, just tremendous crowds but enormous enthusiasm.”

“And I think it says a lot for the American people, because it means that they’re not necessarily listening to the pundits, that they’re starting to think for themselves,” he added on ABC’s “This Week.” “And that, I think, is what it’s going to take to get us off of this inexorable track toward destruction that we’re on.”

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina are tied for third place in the new poll, with 11 percent each.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush nabbed 7 percent. He is followed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 6 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 5 percent. No other GOP candidate had more than 3 percent support, NBC News said.

Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton’s lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) is now just 7 points.

Clinton has 42 percent support nationally, compared to Sanders’s 35 percent. Vice President Joe Biden had 17 percent support.

Clinton held a 60-point lead over Sanders in a similar poll in June.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, conducted Sept. 20-24, has a 6.5 percent margin of error for Republican primary voters. Its margin of error for Democratic voters is 6.1 percent.

This report was updated at 10:29 a.m.

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