Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson does best among the 2016 GOP field against Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical general election race, a new poll shows.
The two are tied at 47%, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal survey based largely on interviews with voters conducted before last week’s GOP presidential debate.
Carson’s standing with independent voters is his biggest advantage over other Republicans. He bests Clinton by 13 percentage points with those voters.
Three other top Republican candidates also run close against Clinton.
She leads Florida Sen. Marco Rubio 47% to 44%; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, 47% to 43%; and Donald Trump, 50% to 42%.
Like all polls, head-to-head match-ups represent a snapshot in time and can be subject to dramatic change.
Clinton isn’t the strongest Democratic candidate against the two Republicans — Trump and Rubio — who were tested in the poll.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders leads Trump, 50% to 41%, and Rubio, 46% to 41%.
The NBC/Wall Street Journal GOP horse race survey — with four days of interviews conducted before last week’s Republican debate and one afterward — shows Carson leading with 29% to Trump’s 23%. Rubio is in third place with 11%.
The general election match-up poll surveyed 847 registered voters between October 25-29 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
