WASHINGTON — A new poll in early battleground Iowa has former brain surgeon Ben Carson surging into a tie with Donald Trump for the first time in the GOP presidential contest — a stunning jump for a political novice who is the latest outsider to shake up the race. Trump and Carson, who came to prominence when he laced into President Obama at a televised prayer breakfast in 2013 as the president looked on, each got 23 percent in the Monmouth University poll released Monday.
Former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina — another outsider who has never held elective office — is third at 10 percent.
It’s the first time in a month that Trump hasn’t had the lead all to himself in one of the four early-voting states.
When GOP voters in Iowa were asked if the next president should be someone “outside of government,” 66 percent said yes. Only 23 percent opted for “someone with government experience.”
“People are hungry for something different, something that has not been tried before,” Iowa state GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann told The Post. “Certainly a neurosurgeon that is involved in politics is new. It’s out of the box, it’s fresh, all of those adjectives that people claim they want.
“I always knew, obviously, Republicans are not fans of President Obama,” Kaufmann added.
“The depth and intensity of that is actually more than what I had believed it was.”
Carson has impressed GOP crowds with his understated demeanor, slashing attacks on the president, and denunciations of political correctness.
He is the only major black presidential candidate in either party, and grew up in tough Detroit neighborhoods — raised by a single mom with only a third-grade education.
His supporters have been organizing on the ground in Iowa for more than a year, backed by a super PAC that promoted his entry into the race.
The trio of political novices is followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 9 percent, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 7 percent, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at just 5 percent.
Walker’s fall has been precipitous: On July 20, he led the same poll with 22 percent, followed by Trump at 13 percent. Carson was at 8 percent back then, making his surge the most dramatic.
“After more than a month of Trump winning virtually every Republican demographic group, we’ve finally got a little variation in voting blocs to talk about,” said pollster Patrick Murray.
The survey sampled 405 Iowans who said they were going to vote in the February caucuses.
A Des Moines Register poll released over the weekend has Trump leading with 23 percent, followed by Carson at 18.
In that survey, considered the gold standard in the state, Carson recorded an extraordinary 79 percent positive favorability rating and only 8 percent negative.
Trump’s favorability numbers were 52 percent favorable and 33 percent unfavorable.
