Carson surges ahead of Trump in national poll

Ben Carson is now leading the Republican

presidential race, as the choice of 29% of Republican primary voters, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

Trailing the retired neurosurgeon

in the poll was Donald Trump with 23%, Marco Rubio with 11%, Ted Cruz with 10% and Jeb Bush with 8%.

Carson's 29% is the highest any Republican candidate has polled in the NBC/WSJ survey to date, according to NBC News.

The poll was conducted Oct. 25-29, before last week's CNBC debate, so it does not reflect any shifts in the race that might have followed that free-for-all.

This is not the first national poll to show Carson in the lead. A New York Times/CBS News poll from last week showed Carson with 26% of GOP primary voters, while Trump trailed with 22%.

A new Monmouth University poll shows Trump still leading in New Hampshire with 26% of the vote, while Carson trails at 16%. The Monmouth poll also shows Rubio surging into third place in the Granite State with 13% of the vote.

Last week, another Monmouth University poll showed Carson leading in Iowa with 32% of the vote, compared to 18% for Trump.