Former President Donald Trump is considering picking Dr. Ben Carson to be his running mate. The two have grown closer in the last decade, going from competing candidates in the 2016 Republican presidential primary to Carson serving as secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Trump administration.
Age
Carson was born on Sept. 18, 1951. He is 72 years old.
Hometown
Carson grew up in Southwest Detroit. He lived in Vienna, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, until 2020 and has a home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Education
After high school, Carson attended Yale University because won College Bowl, a quiz show, that year. He received a full scholarship from the school and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology before attending medical school at the University of Michigan.
Religion
Carson is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which believes in Jesus Christ’s imminent return and emphasizes healthy living and spirituality.
In a 2015 interview with PBS, Carson said he disagrees with the church’s stance against ordaining women. Trump criticized the Seventh-day Adventist Church during the 2016 election, but Carson responded, saying, “The reason that there are like 4,000 denominations is that people have looked at this and said, ‘Let’s interpret it this way. Let’s interpret it this way.’ Sometimes they get caught up in that and forget about the real purpose of Christian faith.”
Net worth
Carson’s net worth is estimated to be $30 million.
Family
He married Candy Carson in 1975, and they have two children, Rhoeyce and Murray Carson.
Occupation before politics
In 1984, Carson became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University, specializing in brain trauma, epilepsy, and other neurological disorders. In 1987, he performed the first successful operation to separate a pair of conjoined twins, Patrick and Benjamin Binder. This surgery thrust him into the national spotlight as one of America’s top surgeons.
In 2013, Carson retired from the operating room, at what he still believed to be the “top of [his] game.”
Books written
The author of six bestselling books, Carson has outlined his personal philosophy and difficult upbringing in Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story and Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence. Beyond his books, he has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles in academic journals across the country.
Major policy positions
Carson has long opposed the Affordable Care Act. Outlining in the Washington Times his plan to replace it, he proposed creating “health savings accounts” for everybody.
“Even if the federal government provided such an account for every American citizen,” he said, “it would cost less than $700 billion a year and everyone would be covered.”
Carson is also a supporter of a national ban on abortion, as opposed to Trump, who supports leaving the decision up to states.
“What is needed is legislation that guarantees the right to life for all American citizens, including those still in the womb,” he recently wrote in his 2024 book, The Perilous Fight: Overcoming Our Culture’s War on the American Family.
In 1992, Carson denounced Maryland Question 6, a referendum that bolstered the landmark case, Roe v. Wade.
Carson proposed a “national guest worker program” as the solution to immigration concerns. In this proposal, immigrants arriving illegally could apply to be “guest workers” before being forced to leave the country. If they can return to the border with proof of employment in America, they will be granted entry.
He’s also laid out a tax plan, writing, “Proportional (flat) taxation works because it’s fair to everyone,” in a piece for the Washington Times. He also believes the IRS should be eliminated.
On gun rights, Carson and Trump are aligned. He is in favor of wide-ranging gun rights, only issuing restrictions for criminals and mentally ill people.
“[Trump] believes in our freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms,” he said at a rally in 2023. “So we can fix our country and we can make America great again.”
Relationship with Trump
Before they “buried the hatchet,” Trump repeatedly attacked Carson, calling him a “pathological liar” and a “violent criminal,” because of a passage of his memoir Gifted Hands, which catalogs an episode when Carson almost attacked his mother with a hammer.
On March 11, 2016, Trump tweeted that he and Carson had “buried the hatchet” and become friends. On March 2, 2017, Carson was sworn in as Trump’s HUD secretary.
Has he run for president?
Yes, Carson ran in the Republican primary for president in 2016, against Trump. He dropped out on March 4 of that year.
Comments on possible vice presidential selection
In a May CNN interview, he said he’d “prayerfully consider” an offer to be Trump’s running mate.
“Trump has this amazing ability to speak directly to people’s hearts and minds without any filter or political correctness,” Carson said.
