Poll: Donald Trump, Ben Carson hold onto top 2 spots [26% / 22%]

Washington (CNN)—Donald Trump and Ben Carson are settling into their respective first- and second-place spots at the top of the GOP field of presidential candidates while Hillary Clinton continues to nearly double her closest rival Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, according to a new national poll.

While Trump is maintaining his lead over the 15 other candidates for the GOP nomination with 26% of the support, Carson made his strongest showing yet in the Farleigh Dickinson University poll released Thursday with 22%. They are the only two Republican candidates to clear double digits of support.

The poll, which was conducted October 1 through October 5, came before Carson made a slew of controversial comments this week when he suggested the victims of the Oregon college shooting should have done more than "stand there and let" the gunman shoot them and said looser gun laws could have "greatly diminished" Hitler's slaughter of millions.

Carson had previously scored as much as 20% of support in an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released late last month.

Carly Fiorina, meanwhile, who surged to third place after a strong performance in the second GOP debate, has slumped to 7% from the 13% high she earned in a poll last week.

I have not chosen a candidate. Frankly, nearly all those running would be heaven compared to what we have had for so long. I just find the vitriol against a man like Dr. Carson, from conservatives, to be really unusual, and I have to wonder whether, truly, racism is a part of that. It seems to me that he does not look through the glass darkly but sees clearly where our culture has come to. His logic and wisdom is really impressive to me. Being President means that you have to deal with a lot of really bad people on a daily basis, so perhaps his talents would be wasted there. Any person who has worked in this country and been exposed to others through that work, any person who knows history, and any person who is a Christian sees the degradation of the America of today, and especially the corruption of our leaders. Regarding immigrants, I believe that law abiding immigrants, and I know some, who come to this nation looking for a better life are a boost to us and probably a big step up morally from what we have all around us in our spoiled, “gimme, gimme, gimme” population. Immigrants who commit crimes should be deported. I am firmly with Bill O’Reilly on that one. Thanks for responding to my post.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.