WASHINGTON (AP) – Ben Carson’s name and face adorn the walls of dozens of schools in the U.S. and a medical school in Nigeria. Mayors have handed him keys to their cities. His charity, founded in 1994, created a national day in his honor each year, celebrated by the children who sit in elementary school reading rooms named after him.
All of this is part of a well-honed enterprise that promotes Ben Carson – presidential candidate, political commentator, paid speaker, author, neurosurgeon and champion of children, reading and God.
He has folded into Carson Enterprises his presidential campaign, which has excelled at fundraising, bringing in almost $32 million through the end of September – more than any other 2016 Republican candidate. That fundraising prowess continues, even as his poll numbers decline. His campaign manager, Barry Bennett, said Thursday they raised about $20 million since the beginning of October, matching their extraordinary summertime pace. Speaking fees over a nearly two-year period raked in $4.3 million. And his nonprofit continues to raise money.
It’s hard to see where one Carson stops and another begins.
“I think as people get to know me they’ll be able to see exactly who I am,” Carson said in an interview with The Associated Press in late October. “I don’t worry about that.”