(photo by Sarah Beckman)
Less than 24 hours after going on stage with nine other Republican presidential candidates for the first nationally televised presidential debate, Ben Carson was back in Iowa on Friday afternoon to begin another round of campaigning in the caucus state.
Carson gave his post-debate analysis to a handful of reporters at his Iowa headquarters in Urbandale before heading to a fundraiser in Ames.
“It’s difficult when you have that many people,” said Carson of standing out. “I think we got six minutes a piece, and Trump got about 12 minutes.”
Carson also said though he does not participate in insulting fellow contenders, he is willing to call out bad leadership skills, such as he sees in President Obama and Donald Trump.
“First of all, you need a leader who does not play into that himself,” said Carson. “Anytime there is any kind of conflict between people of different wedges, driving wedges in, you know come on. People are going to have conflicts, and sometimes they are going to be of different races, and it’s just craziness.”
The neurosurgeon credited his positive numbers on social media as a sign that he resonated with hundreds of new voters across the country.
“If you look at the social media, obviously the message got out in a very,very substantial way, and that’s what we are trying to do,” said Carson. “And we want people to understand that there are a lot of very vital important issues, and they (voters) need to do more than look at the debate.”
Carson’s Facebook page gained 253,000 new fans in 48 hours, according to his press secretary Deana Bass. She also said Carson received 24,000 new followers on Twitter in that same time frame. Flying in to Iowa this weekend, Carson said, is the right thing to do for his campaign.
“Iowa is a critical state for everybody, and it’s a wonderful state to have an opportunity to really see the people themselves and they see you,” said Carson. “It’s not like that in many places.”
Though he already purchased billboards throughout the metro, Carson’s campaign rolled out a platform of ads on TV and radio starting today in Iowa and New Hampshire. Carson said he’s interested to see the impact of these advertisements and their overall message.
“We’ve got to start looking out for the future and caring about what happens to the next generation,” said Carson. “That’s one of my main motivations for running, having been a pediatric nurse surgeon all my professional career and looking out what’s going to happen to the kids coming behind us.”
Carson said he will continue giving Iowa attention throughout his campaign and enjoys touring the entire state as part of his strategy to spread his message and boost his name recognition.
