Ben Carson just fired half his campaign staff

(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

published 4 February 2016

As Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson continues to tumble in the polls, his entire campaign has been forced to downsize yet again. While this means cutting expenses like private jets, The Washington Post reports the switch to commercial airlines is just the tip of the iceberg in the Carson campaign overhaul:

Ben Carson, the famed neurosurgeon whose bid for the Republican presidential nomination has struggled to keep pace with rivals, will cut more than 50 staff positions on Thursday as part of an overhaul and downsizing of his entire campaign.Salaries are being significantly reduced. Carson’s traveling entourage will shrink to only a handful of advisers. [The Washington Post]

The staff cuts comprise "about half" of the campaign, The Post reports, and are mostly employees that work in field operations and at headquarters.

Even in the face of these massive cutbacks and diminishing funds, Carson's campaign stresses that he's not planning on leaving the race anytime soon and that key aides remain in place. "Dr. Carson is going to get his campaign lean — really lean," Carson confidant Armstrong Williams told The Washington Post. "One issue for a while has been too much infrastructure and he has decided to fully address it so that he can sustain his campaign until the convention."