Adviser: Ben Carson Is ‘Very, Very Serious’ About Running For President

In an interview with The Daily Caller on Friday, a close friend and adviser to Ben Carson said he believes it is likely the neurosurgeon will run as a Republican for president in 2016.

“I think he’s very, very serious,” said Terry Giles, who recently agreed to serve as chairman of the campaign if Carson pulls the trigger on a run. “If it were on the big board in Vegas, I’d probably be betting in favor of the fact he’s going to run.”

Carson — the former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital — has acknowledged that he is considering a White House campaign. The author and public speaker has been increasingly mentioned as a possible candidate, following a burst of attention last year for famously arguing a conservative message at the National Prayer Breakfast as President Obama sat just a few feet away.

“I am in the process of arranging my life so that if Ben wants me to be involved in the campaign, I could take the time off for how ever long that is from all my other businesses and activities in order to do that,” Giles said. “I don’t think he would ask me to do that if he wasn’t serious.”

Giles, a businessman from Texas who has known Carson for 20 years, told TheDC he doesn’t expect Carson to make up his mind for another “six, seven or eight months.”

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