Poll: Carson the only Republican candidate to match Clinton

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- It appears Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is the GOP's best chance to defeat Hillary Clinton in next year's election, a new poll revealed Tuesday.

The survey, conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, showed roughly the same number of registered voters polled nationwide said they support each candidate.

Carson, the current GOP front-runner, performed better than any other Republican in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup with Clinton.

Both Clinton and Carson received 47 percent in the poll. No other Republican came within 3 percentage points of the former State Department chief.

"If the election for president were held today, and [name here] were the Republican candidate and Hillary Clinton were the Democratic candidate, for whom would you vote?" was the question posed by pollsters.

In a previous poll, conducted between Oct. 15-19, Carson drew 45 percent to Clinton's 47 percent -- indicating the Democratic challenger's support remained static while Carson's grew over roughly two weeks.

In a potential matchup with Donald Trump, Clinton won 50 to 42 percent. Marco Rubio trailed Clinton 47 to 44 percent and Jeb Bush trailed 47 to 43 percent.

Carson's support in a matchup against Clinton appears to indicate he's captured more of the independent vote than Clinton has, NBC News reported. Among voters who identified themselves as independent, 13 percent more said they would vote for Carson than Clinton.

The new poll was conducted between Oct. 25-29 and carries a margin of error of 3.4 points.